Investment targets Kuratau power woes
1 July 2019
The days of long power outages at Kuratau on the western side of Lake Taupō are numbered with The Lines Company (TLC) announcing it will spend around $700,000 on a major upgrade in the area.
From July until September this year, TLC crews will renew aged power lines servicing a number of small settlements. In late 2019, TLC will also begin replacing a major transformer which feeds 1,600 customers across Kuratau, Omori, Pukawa and Whareroa. Work on the transformer replacement is scheduled to be finished by early 2020.
General manager – network Mike Fox said Kuratau had suffered an unacceptable number of outages over recent years and partly because of aged equipment, TLC had struggled to get power back on fast enough. This investment would reduce outages and ensure that, if something did occur, power could be reconnected, faster.
“This investment is well needed; the wait times in this area have been unacceptable. It’s great to finally have the work budgeted and scheduled so we will have a power supply in that area that is more reliable.”
He noted the investment would not necessarily put a stop to all power outages.
“For example, in November last year we had issues with trees on private land and one incident took power out all day with nearly 1,300 customers affected,” he said.
“This work won’t stop that, or stop cars hitting power poles, but it will ensure power can be reconnected more quickly if something untoward occurs.”
Customers would experience some short power outages while the work was undertaken, but would be given plenty of advance warning, TLC said.