Power outage 'frustrating'

A Kaitaia businessman estimates Sunday's day-long power outage will cost his store $10,000 in lost turnover.

Ian Walker, the owner of Folders Kaitaia, said it wasn't cost effective to equip his North Park Drive store with generators for one day a year.

Nor did he expect to recoup the lost sales at a later date - past experience told him the town would empty out during the power cut, with Kaitaia residents heading to Whangarei, Kerikeri or Paihia and spending their money there.

"The town disappears. It's a frustration, but what do you do?"

The need to regularly turn off Kaitaia's power supply was symptomatic of a lack of investment in Far North infrastructure over many years. It applied equally to roads, communications and "appalling" broadband speeds.

"The government gives us 10 bridges, which they then renege on, instead of spending money on infrastructure we really need. That demonstrates they have no idea what the issues are here."

Mr Walker said the Far North used to have a second power circuit, which would eliminate the need for shutdowns, but the operator at the time did not want the maintenance costs so shut it down.

Top Energy was now trying to catch up on maintenance and build a second circuit, "but to have to wait until 2026 to have it sorted is ridiculous".

Meanwhile, Pak'nSave, which does have backup generators, will open as usual. Kaitaia Hospital is ready for the outage with backup generators checked and tested, and a contingency plan is in place in case the switch-over doesn't work as it should. The final checks were carried out last Friday.

Sunday's outage, which is scheduled to run from 8am-5pm in Kaitaia and surrounding areas, will replace a day-long outage which had been planned for March next year.

Maintenance work will include replacing a power pole at Umawera which has cracked and is in danger of collapsing.

Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw said if the pole fell it would cut all power to Kaitaia while emergency repairs were carried out. By bringing the outage forward from March, replacing the pole could be combined with other essential work, limiting the power cut to one day.

The pole is the second structure to have failed on the Kaikohe to Kaitaia high-voltage transmission line this year. In March Top Energy had to replace a tower in the Mangamukas.

Since 2009 the company had spent $160 million upgrading the network. By 2026 the figure would be $260 million.