Ex-tropical Cyclone Tam update - 2.30pm Tuesday
Strong wind gusts and heavy rain are hindering the response to restore power to affected customers in Hauraki, eastern and southern Waikato, and Coromandel regions of Powerco’s electricity network.
Powerco General Manager Electricity Karen Frew says to keep field crews safe in the storm conditions, crews are currenlty only responding to emergency situations, such as lines down.
At 2.15pm Thursday, there were about 1,500 customer in the areas of east and south Waikato, Hauraki and Coromandel affected by power outages. Updates can be viewed on Powerco’s outage map here.
“We know it's hard to be without power and we will do everything we can to get restored as quickly as possible, but we need the weather to improve to do that safely. For that reason, it’s important that, if you are affected by an outage because of storm damage, that you prepare to be without power overnight,” Karen Frew says.
“Due to the weather conditions in Hauraki and Waikato in particular, it is too unsafe to make fault repairs. We will be doing all we can with the technology we have in place to minimise the outage areas, however, we will need the winds to die down before we can make repairs to physical damage such as broken lines.”
Powerco has extra field crews on standby ready to respond when the weather abates.
How customers can stay safe
If people see downed power lines, it’s important to:
• Stay at least 10m away from the lines and poles - that's about the length of a bus.
• Call 111 immediately or Powerco's emergency number, 0800 27 27 27.
• Downed lines should always be treated as live.
We respond 24/7 to lines down incidents on our electricity network. Learn more about what to do in an emergency here.
What to do in the event of an outage
If customers do experience an outage, they’re advised to report their outage by:
• Contacting their retailer (the company they pay their power bill to), or
• Using the report an outage form on Powerco’s website here.
Customers wanting information about power cuts can go to Powerco’s power outage webpage or can contact their electricity retailer.
More tips on preparing for a power outage are available on Powerco’s website here.
