Transpower has advised that all going well it expects to complete the bypass of its flooded Redclyffe substation near Taradale this evening.

Redclyffe substation suffered extensive damage during Cyclone Gabrielle and Transpower has been working with Unison Networks to create a bypass for the 220KV high voltage line to enable it to connect to the Whakatu substation north-east of Hastings.

Once the bypass is complete, local lines company Unison Networks will begin progressively restoring power to some but not all homes and businesses in Hawke’s Bay, including urban parts of Napier and some remaining areas of Hastings such as Clive, Te Awanga and Whakatu. This work is expected to take place from Saturday.

We have also continued to increase the amount of power available to local lines companies in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, with 104MW of power now available across the region (enough to power around 104,000 homes). We are grateful to Genesis Energy for providing additional generation and technical support at Tuai to achieve this.

Unison Networks advises there are 37,400 homes and businesses without power in Hawke’s Bay, with 31,630 of these from Napier which is the area most impacted by the loss of the Redclyffe substation.

Eastland Network advises there are 4,500 homes and businesses without power in Tairāwhiti, including more than 1,600 in Wairoa.

There continue to be logistical challenges in restoring power in the region as a result of damage to roading, significant debris and damaged communications networks. We are grateful to all those throughout the electricity industry who have worked together through these challenges to get this bypass in place.

The industry has also worked hard to support local lines companies in other parts of the country such as Northland, Auckland, Waikato and the Coromandel where there are still power outages as a result of damage to local lines company infrastructure. The national transmission grid is fully operational in those areas.

Our thoughts continue to be with all those who have been impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle and are further impacted by the loss of power. We assure them that our people, our service providers, local lines companies and others in the industry continue to work tirelessly to get as much power restored into the area as quickly as possible.

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