Gough said the main issue was the volume of work combined with the technically challenging nature of the repairs and the difficult terrain the crews have had to access.
"The severe weather and wind-borne material has taken a lot of lines down and the damage to the network has been significant."
He said some customers in Hawke's Bay and Rotorua might be experiencing hot water issues.
"We understand how frustrating having no power and no hot water will be for the final few
who are facing issues since the storm hit on Thursday evening.
"However, we are working as fast and as safely as we can to fix the damage from the storm and have brought in crews from other regions to help."
Customers still without power are advised to check Unison's list of outages for details
including expected restoration time: www.unison.co.nz/outages.
Mr Gough said volumes through the call centre remained high but if customers were without power and not listed on the website, they should call 0800 2 UNISON (0800 2 86476) to report it.
Meanwhile power has been restored at all 10 council sewerage pump stations which had been running on generators following outages across the district on Friday.
Yesterday residents on council sewerage systems in the Okere, Otaramarae, Okawa Bay, Tikitere and Mourea areas were asked to reduce water use for the duration of power cuts to help slow inflow into the local sewerage pump stations while they were running on generators.
All systems are now operating as normal again.
Alarms on low pressure grinder pumps may had been set off when the power was restored. To silence the alarm, and make sure the pump is back up and running without any issues take the following steps:
-Press the button on the alarm panel to silence the alarm
-Wait an hour to see if the light turns off
-If the light does not turn off call Rotorua Lakes Council on 07 348 4199 for assistance
To view the full low pressure grinder pump owners manual click here.
