Lightning Strikes Cause Blackout

On Thursday 4th September at 2 minutes before 2 pm, lightning struck in Paranui Valley Road, Tikipunga, causing 7,000 electricity consumers to lose their supply.

Approximately 1 minute later, Northpower had restored supply to 5,000 consumers, and another 1,500 consumers were restored 2 minutes after that.

Northpower Network Manager, Calvin Whaley, attributed the fast restoration for the majority of consumers to the recent addition of remotely controlled switches on the 33,000 volt lines at Whareora.

The outage affected a wide area from parts of Riverside in Whangarei, through Onerahi to Whangarei Heads, and as far North as Ngunguru and Sandy Bay.

The lightning caused only minor damage to the electricity network but 500 consumers in the immediate area, and out as far as Whareora and Pataua North, were off for 42 minutes whilst lines were checked.

There were reports of damaged appliances in houses close to the lightning strike, so further checks were carried out before a transformer supplying 12 consumers was relivened. There was some minor damage to light sockets in one property identified, but residents did indicate that their telephones were not working.

© Scoop Media