Residents call Vector planned outage ‘reprehensible’ as Auckland temps plunge, planned maintenance scheduled

Residents in Auckland’s Avondale will be spending a night in the cold tonight, as a pre-planned outage from lines company Vector comes in the middle of a cold snap.

Great North Rd resident Alec, 68, who did not want his surname published, blasted Vector for the timing, saying the company “lacks any social conscience”.

He told the Herald he had three hot water bottles prepared for the evening, but without any other heating, he was worried about how his pet budgie Saphira would fare. He was also concerned about his elderly and vulnerable neighbours in the 54 other units in his housing complex.

The power will go out at 11pm and will be back online at 6am tomorrow. MetService said the temperature is likely to fall to 5C overnight. It was unclear just how many properties would be affected by the outage.

“I think it [the timing of the outage] is reprehensible,” Alec said.

“The only people that think it’s all right is Vector. Nobody I’ve spoken to thinks that this is good planning or good management.

“There are nine other months of the year where temperatures don’t drop to single digits. Why couldn’t the work be done then?”

A spokeswoman for Vector said: “While we appreciate that we are experiencing a cold snap at the moment, the work is scheduled to happen this weekend to make necessary repairs on the power lines.

“Planned maintenance work like this is critical to maintaining the reliability of the network for local customers.

Alec, 68, has prepared hot water bottles but was frustrated with Vector for planning the outage on what is expected to be one of the coldest nights of the year.

“There are a few reasons why the work has been planned for this time,” she said. This included traffic management requirements set by Auckland Transport for this job, she said.

Auckland Transport’s requirements meant the work couldn’t be done during the day, she said. With several businesses in the area, along with schools and a medical centre, Vector “needed to find the least disruptive time for the planned outage to happen”.

The Herald put Vector’s statement to Alec. He said the lines company was “mincing words” and claimed Vector was “not taking any sort of care about the elderly and vulnerable”.

Alec said he would run his heat pump until 11pm when the power was cut, after which he would rely on his hot water bottles, which he had bought today.

He said he would put one bottle on the floor of his budgie’s cage in the hope it would stave off the worst of the expected chill.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.