OVERVIEW
Every time there is a power cut, we start counting how many customers are affected – how long you are without power and how often.
There are two types of power outages – unplanned and planned. Both have regulatory targets to make sure we are meeting the required quality standards for your power supply.
We met all our targets in CPP – Year Two. That means we kept the power on for more people, and minimised the impact on our customers when we had work to do on the electricity network.
Link to our glossary
Unplanned outage targets
Managing variables that lead to power cuts, like extreme weather conditions, vehicles colliding with power poles or bird strikes, is challenging.
While we can’t plan for unplanned outages, we work closely alongside our Downer field crews to get customers’ power back on as quickly and safely as possible when the unexpected does occur. This includes adding extra fault staff to our first response teams if we see a power cut is affecting large numbers of customers. This helps with timely repairs and power restoration.
We also carefully review outages, targeting faults with an unknown cause and where there are repeat outages. Our crews then patrol the affected power lines to locate the cause and fix the issue.
The weather conditions also played a part in helping us meet the target. Fewer storms producing high winds, which have the potential to bring down trees and debris onto lines, as well as lightning damage, meant fewer weather-related power cuts towards the end of the reporting period.
Planned outage targets
There are times when we need to disconnect the power supply to safely work on maintaining or upgrading equipment on the electricity network.
Figuring out when to schedule these outages is carefully weighed up – something we successfully balanced in CPP – Year Two. With careful planning, we stayed under the regulatory limit for the frequency and length of unplanned outages on our network.
We work hard to schedule planned outages to minimise disruptions to our customers, including arranging all connected work for the same time and re-routing power to customers where possible. However, sometimes in rural areas, there is only one line servicing an area and planned outages are unavoidable. To help avoid lengthy unplanned rural outages in the future, Powerco has invested in a mobile substation which allows electricity to safely bypass rural substations so maintenance and upgrades can take place – keeping communities connected while we work.
Milestones
UPDATES
Find out the latest updates about this project
Construct new substation building
FAQ
We strive to minimise impact in the design and placement of network infrastructure and we’re still planning and consulting on the route for the new circuit. The circuit will be a mix of overhead lines – which you will see, and underground cable – which you won’t see. You’ll also see a new building at our Putaruru substation, replacing the ageing existing building there.
EVENTS
Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
Downloads
2020
- Document 1
- Document 2
- Document 3