Top Energy linemen repair powerlines brought down by a pine tree on Wiroa Rd near Kerikeri. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Top Energy linemen repair powerlines brought down by a pine tree on Wiroa Rd near Kerikeri. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Almost 1400 households across Northland are still without power after the region's electricity network was hammered by Cyclone Dovi on Saturday night.
As of 10am on Monday Far North lines company Top Energy was still working to fix 20 outages affecting about 1200 households and businesses — down from 17,000 at the height of the storm.
The vast majority of outages were caused by trees falling onto power lines.
The biggest outages remaining in the Far North are in the Kaingaroa area, east of Awanui, with 318 households, and North Hokianga with 178 households.
Those faults were expected to be repaired by 4pm today.
In Whangārei and Kaipara lines company Northpower was still dealing with nine outages affecting 175 households, down from a peak of 6000.
In a message to customers a Top Energy spokesperson said repair crews worked until late on Sunday night and were back out this morning, aided by calm, dry weather across the Far North.
The company hoped full power would be restored by the end of the day.
''Parts of our network are in difficult and remote areas that will need to be accessed by foot. This will take time so please bear with us,'' the spokesperson said.
''We understand it has been a hard night for many and some of you have been without power for over a day.''
Top Energy's call centre was overloaded with calls on Sunday and the company had been unable to keep up with updates on estimated power restoration times on its outage app.
Repair crews were hampered on Saturday night by continuing high winds and falling trees, prompting Top Energy to suspend repair efforts for safety reasons from about 10pm until light the next morning.
By then they faced an enormous backlog of faults affecting most of the Far North, including all of Aupōuri Peninsula, rural Kaitaia, Doubtless Bay, North Hokianga, Ōkaihau, Horeke, Ohaeawai and the outer Bay of Islands.
Outages covered almost the entire Top Energy network at 8am on Sunday. Image / Top Energy
In the Northpower areas of Whangārei and Kaipara about 175 households had no power on Sunday night.
Repair crews were back on the road this morning to fix remaining outages in Tangowahine, Kaiwaka, Brynderwyn, Awakioa, Omana, Tinopai and Parua Bay.
Those areas were expected to have their power restored today.
A Northpower spokesperson said many customers had also suffered damage to their service lines, the low-voltage power cable that ran from the network to individual properties.
''We are working through this and will be in touch to arrange repairs as soon as we can,'' the spokesperson said.
At the peak of the storm an estimated 23,000 households across Northland were without power.
According to Census 2018 figures there are about 65,000 occupied dwellings in Northland, or 80,000 if unoccupied dwellings are included.
The weekend wasn't just frantic for lines companies. Many volunteer firefighters didn't see their beds on Saturday night as they raced from one incident to another, most involving downed trees.
Kerikeri Fire Brigade had 16 callouts between 11pm on Saturday and noon on Sunday, including a serious scrub fire sparked by fallen power lines near Panguru on the opposite coast.
