Running an electricity lines network over a 13,700 square km area is no small feat. To keep up with increasing demand, we plan and proactively upgrade our network infrastructure to ensure it remains safe, reliable and resilient, and that you continue to have power at the flick of a switch.
Planned outages occur for a number of reasons:
If your property is going to be affected by a planned outage, we’ll let you know at least four days prior via a letterbox drop.
We’ll also post outage notifications on our faults and outages page and provide updates as work progresses.
If we need access to your property for planned work, we’ll liaise with you ahead of time to make appropriate arrangements. This may include getting access for vehicles or to our equipment, an internal meter board, or similar.
Federated Farmers has a range of fact sheets which outline landowner rights and obligations when it comes to access for lines maintenance across private land.
Emergency situations require unrestricted access.
We understand being without power is inconvenient. Choosing when we complete planned maintenance is a careful balancing act involving many factors but public safety and that of our team is paramount.
We also consider seasonal activities like lambing, calving, and peak milk production, as well as weather, power demand, regulatory requirements and community priorities.
From time to time, we may experience intermittent faults. Our team is out there every working day making sure you have power when you need it.
Faults occur for many reasons including bad weather, trees or other debris falling on lines, snow, vehicle accidents, or unexpected equipment failure.
While we do our best to resolve faults quickly, there may be times when we need to work alongside emergency services, locate faults in remote areas, or contend with large-scale weather events.
This can cause slight delays, but please be assured we’re working hard to investigate and restore power to you. Your patience and understanding are appreciated.
Demand for electricity on our network continues to grow. Farming, commercial and industrial business growth across the network, along with population increases predicted for northern areas, mean there’s more demand for power.
We’ve planned for that and have a number of upgrades and other network investments underway to make sure our region is well positioned for future economic development opportunities.
To reduce the potential for outages it’s important we keep the approximately 35,000 poles and around 51,000 cross-arms in service across our network in tip-top condition.
Between now and the end of the year we’re renewing poles and cross-arms in and around Otorohanga to increase the reliability of the town’s power supply.
This $1.2 million upgrade is part of this year’s planned maintenance programme where we’re spending a total of $6 million on line renewals across the network.
Our Northpower contractors are doing the Otorohanga work in stages and sections and have finished the first Main North Road and Harper’s Avenue part.
The second stage in and around Otorohanga’s CBD — an area roughly west and south of Maniapoto Street – is underway.
Some sections impacted by bad weather are being rescheduled.
Crews are working on the lines on weekdays between 8.00am and 5.00pm, and there’s some weekend work.
We’re letting customers know when power will be off by mail as usual and there’s information on our website and Facebook pages, and on the local radio.
While we’re meeting current demand from our Te Waireka substation at Otorohanga, the town and surrounding area are growing and will need more electricity in the future.
Over a 12 month period, we’re replacing Te Waireka’s transformers with two bigger ones to increase the amount of power we can supply from it.
To minimise outages for our customers we’re taking it in stages, swapping, installing and commissioning each new unit one at a time. The replacement transformers are brand new. We’ve had them custom-built in Vietnam to our requirements and to meet Otorohanga’s specific supply needs.
When we’re finished, Te Waireka’s supply capacity will have increased from 20 to 30 Megawatt (MW). That’s plenty to power the area’s residents, businesses, and industry for years to come.
The original Te Waireka transformers are being serviced before going to Taumarunui’s Borough substation, where they’ll be used to increase that town’s supply capacity.
We’re committed to providing a secure supply to the 9,000 customers who get their power from the substation site shared with Transpower on Waitomo Caves Road.
We’re expecting ongoing growth and development in the wider Waitomo/Otorohanga/Te Kuiti area to add around 15 Megawatt (MW) extra electrical load to Hangatiki by 2023.
Adding a third transformer caters to the increasing demand that’s coming from farms, meat works, the iron sands mine, a proposed new dairy factory facility, and residential growth.
The additional 30MW transformer arrived at Hangatiki in December and over the next few months, we’re assembling and adding high voltage connections, cooling systems and other control equipment to it, before testing, commissioning and finally connecting it to our network.
This work on the near-new, third transformer, which adds 20MW – or a 50% increase – to the substation’s current 20MW capacity, is scheduled from December 2018 through to the end of February 2019.
Growth and demand extend into the southern part of our network. When we’ve finished our work at Otorohanga, Te Waireka’s original 10 Megawatt (MW) transformers are going to the Borough substation in Taumarunui.
Following installation, testing and commissioning, this upgrade will boost Taumarunui’s supply capacity from 5MW to 10MW.
Borough’s current 5MW transformers will be reused elsewhere on the network.
We’re in an ever-changing energy landscape. More and more New Zealanders are turning to electric vehicles (EVs) for their transport needs and taking them further afield. We’re onboard with helping make our network an EV destination for Kiwis and international visitors to travel to or through our region.
We’ve secured Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) funding to install around 100 publicly accessible EV chargers at accommodation and tourism businesses around our network.
Proprietors are signing up for our wall-mounted charging units that’ll allow their customers to charge vehicles in locations such as motels, hotels, sports and outdoor activity venues while out enjoying everything our beautiful region has to offer.
The user connects to the charging unit and pays the business owner for the electricity they use via a cloud-connected tracking system
Contact us for a chat if you’d like your business to be a part of this unique opportunity.
