Wild weather impacting Powerco's electricity network

5pm Sunday update

Ongoing wild weather across the North Island has caused a number of outages on Powerco’s electricity network this weekend.

As of 5pm Sunday there are 124 customers without power as follows:

• 39 customers without power in Bay of Plenty
• 6 in Manawatū
• 5 in Taranaki
• 41 in Coromandel and South Waikato
• 33 in Whanganui

Field crews have been out restoring customers as quickly and as safely as possible throughout the day, bolstered by additional teams brought in to assist. Those efforts have been hampered by ongoing wind, rain and lightning.

Unfortunately 25 Bay of Plenty customers will remain off overnight in the Te Puke and Wairoa areas with crews needing to wait for floodwaters to subside before equipment can be accessed. Those customers are located on Redwood Lane, Tebbutt Road, Malcolm Avenue and Showground Road.

Teams are optimistic that all other customers will be reconnected this evening at this stage.

Crews will continue to work up until 9pm Sunday evening and will attend emergencies thereafter. 

Powerco advises customers to:
• Regularly check Powerco’s outage map for the latest information on current outages.
• Report an outage either by contacting their retailer (the company they pay their power bill to), or using Powerco’s report an outage page.
• Visiting Powerco’s power outage tips page for information on other measures to take during an outage.

In the event of an emergency, such as lines down, customers should:
• Treat lines as live at all times, and keep people and animals well clear
• Phone 0800 27 27 27 or 111 to report it

Powerco thanks customers for their patience as teams work to reconnect them, in particular to those who will remain off overnight.

12:30pm Sunday update

Ongoing wild weather across Aotearoa has caused a number of outages on Powerco’s electricity network this weekend.

The South Waikato, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty regions where the weather has hit hard are the most affected.

As of 12:30pm Sunday there are 422 customers without power in those areas.

Conditions remain strong with ongoing lightning strikes, wind and heavy rain hampering reconnection efforts. Road closures as the result of flooding and slips have also cut off access to areas of the Coromandel.

Additional field crews are out reconnecting customers wherever possible, however strong winds and lightning are making work hazardous in places, and some sites remain inaccessible due to the road closures. 

Helicopters are on standby to assist with access and reconnection work, however conditions must ease before they can be deployed.