Power Slowly Being Restored

There are currently 5425 customers without power in the Coromandel.  Power was restored to the Tairua substation this afternoon. As it enlivens this evening, many of those customers are expected to be reconnected.

Powerco Head of Network Operations Caz Haydon says although crews are hoping to reconnect as many of those remaining customers as possible over the next 24 hours, ongoing access issues in some areas mean people should prepare to be without power for the rest of the week.

“We’ve made some good progress to reconnect customers but continue to face issues around access. It’s really difficult for us to give estimated restoration times when we’re still impacted by the conditions on the ground, but we also appreciate this is the information our customers want.

“While we are doing our best to reconnect as many of our customers as possible, we’re asking those without power to prepare to be without supply until the end of the week. If any customers have welfare concerns, they should reach out to their local Civil Defence for support.”

Caz says faults continue to trend downwards, with crews prioritising restorations by scale (the largest outages impacting the most customers) and duration (customers who have been without power the longest).

“We also have vegetation contractors working alongside crews to clear trees and branches as needed. Civil Defence and NZTA are also helping crews access areas with road closures, so that power can be restored wherever possible.

“Our crews will continue working into the evening as long as safely possible but will eventually need to stand down, and start carrying out repairs again in the morning.