Transpower has declared a Grid Emergency following the loss of electricity supply to Hawkes Bay and Gisborne.

The outage is a result of flooding to the Redclyffe substation following extreme weather from Cyclone Gabrielle. The Unison and Eastland networks that distribute electricity to the region are currently down as a result.

Due to the current situation, we are not able to obtain communications from our substation, but it is likely the Redclyffe substation is underwater. While we cannot currently access the site, we have a helicopter on standby for further investigation when possible.

Until we are able to gain access to the substation we will not have a clear picture of how long the region will be without power, but we are advising that the community should be prepared to be without power for days to weeks, rather than hours. We are working closely with Unison and Eastland to understand the situation and develop a restoration plan to ensure power is returned as quickly as possible.

All options are being considered, but the safety of our work crews and the community is paramount. We will not take actions to bring power back before it is safe for them to do so.

Transpower will update people through our website and social media channels as the situation becomes clearer. We advise people to follow Civil Defence instructions and stay safe.

While we had a brief outage overnight in Taranaki, we were able to quickly restore power there. We have been fortunate that the grid has held up in other parts of the country and we are working closely with local lines companies to support where possible.

Our people are continuing to work tirelessly to manage the grid and keep power flowing where we can.

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