Electricity supply update Gisborne, Wairoa and East Coast

More isolated power faults are being reported to Eastland Network as Cyclone Pam edges closer to the Gisborne region.

General Manager Brent Stewart said a total of about 600 customers were currently without power.

“There are a few isolated faults in and around the city, some more significant network faults up the coast and inland (which are being minimised through the use of our generators) and no faults at this time in the Wairoa network.”

The largest group of customers affected are the Hicks Bay/Lotton Point/Waikura Valley where around 200 people are currently without power.

In Gisborne city, around 100 customers in the Mangapapa and Te Hapara suburbs lost power mid-morning.

“We have a team working there now and hope to be able to advise the power is back on very shortly,” said Mr Stewart.

He said wind and falling trees had caused most of the outages, and reminded anyone who noticed a fault to contact the Network’s call centre.

“It’s important people call us on 0800 206 207 to report any faults or damaged power lines so we can send a faultman. Please stay safe and treat all power lines as live at all times.”

Eastland Network covers a challenging and expansive area spanning some 12,000 square kilometers much of which is very remote and covers some tough terrain. With nearly 25,500 connections to customers throughout the region, the network has a relatively low average customer/connection density of only seven connections per kilometre.

Eastland Network is actually three networks – Gisborne, Tuai and Wairoa – which have separate connections to Transpower’s transmission grid.

The majority of the network is comprised of 3,280 kilometres of overhead reticulation, with a further 380 kilometres underground reticulation installed mainly in the urban areas of Gisborne and Wairoa. There are 3700 substations throughout the network.

ENDS

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