Strong hopes electricity will be restored across most of Napier by midweek, including Taradale, have been expressed during a ministerial visit to the Transpower’s Redclyffe substation.
The late-morning visit to the station, which was inundated by the overflowing waters of the Tutaekuri River on Tuesday morning, was made by Minister of Finance Grant Robertson and Minister of Primary Industries Damien O’Connor, guided through by Transpower chief executive Alison Andrews and general manager of grid delivery Mark Ryall, along with local supplier Unison Networks chairman Ken Sutherland.
Robertson said the big question for everyone in Napier is: “When’s the power going to come back on?”
Ryall said that with the bypass operable through the Whakatu sub-station, between Clive and Hastings, Unison Network could get supply to customers in central and south Napier and with a separate route to Redclyffe it hoped to get Taradale online by Monday night.
But a “100 per cent” fix for all the customers would be “weeks”, with Sutherland emphasising many sites had access issues that needed to be addressed.
The routing through Redclyffe is no indication of its future, with Andrews saying that, while the equipment would be available to re-establish the station, there would be a decision about where that may be.
Robertson said among the reasons for his visit other than to understand the most urgent situation of restoring supply was to understand some of the issues of the future location of the station, which was built in 1927 with now many questions being asked about why it was built on a flood plain.
The entourage met Ventia NZ delivery manager Beau Vella, who has worked at the station for seven years and who rushed to it from his Taradale home when he became aware it had flooded.
Grant Robertson visits the flooded Redclyffe substation. Photo / Warren Buckland
Behind him, a slip crashed into a neighbour’s home in front of a power station full of mud and water. According to one report, there has been up to 1.5 metres in the control room.
Napier MP Stuart Nash and Hastings MP Anna Lorck were also on the visit.
Nash said he was confident everything possible was being done to restore the electricity supply to all the customers, by the “guys who know best” what has to be done.
Understanding concerns from the different areas around the city as to when their own supply would be restored, Nash said: “They’re doing this in a way that only these guys do. Everyone needs to have patience.”
