Huge outage: Lightning strike cuts power to thousands in the central ...
Updated
NZ Herald
21 Dec, 2024 02:50 AM2 mins to read
Thousands of people are currently without power in the lower North Island. Photo / File
Thousands of people are currently without power in the central North Island, possibly linked to adverse weather.
A Transpower spokesperson says a lightning strike on their network possibly caused a power outage to most of Hawke’s Bay, though they were working to find out if this was related to the other outages.
Outages have been reported in Gisborne, Taupō, Napier and Hastings, though reports of power being returned to parts of Gisborne and Napier have been received as at 4.50pm.
Unison’s automatic fault reporting line says it expects to restore power to Napier and Hastings by 6.30pm at the latest.
A Unison spokesperson says the focus in the first instance was on key areas, like the hospital.
A Transpower spokesperson said the 220kV lines that feed the Hawke’s Bay area are offline right now, and Transpower is looking into ways to put them back on.
4:53pm UPDATE: Kia ora everyone, we've managed to fix the affected circuit and are now working with your local lines...
Posted by Transpower NZ on Friday 20 December 2024They believed the outage affected most of the Hawke’s Bay region, and they were looking into where else could be affected.
In Napier, staff from fast food restaurants have put up road cones closing off their drive-through facilities.
Shops, cafes and restaurants are closed across Hawke’s Bay.
Further north, outages have also been reported through Wairoa, and then up to Gisborne and on the East Coast.
Restoration depends on the options available, and they would be working with Unison in finding a solution, they said.
They said there was uncertainty about how the issue would be solved at this stage, and a timeline for a power return was currently unavailable.
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