Agencies marshal action plans, but no regional crisis declared

Central Auckland workers wait outside their offices after the power cut. Picture / Martin Sykes

Crisis? What crisis? Yesterday's power cut in Auckland was not considered serious enough to declare a regional state of emergency.

The Auckland City Council emergency operations centre was activated about 9.30am yesterday, an hour after the lights went out throughout the city and in parts of Manukau City.

But Manukau City councillor Neil Morrison, who chairs the regional civil defence and emergency management group, said the group held a telephone discussion and decided not to activate the regional operations centre.

But other agencies did intervene. Key actors included:

TRANSPOWER

When the lights went out at 8.32am, operational staff at Transpower's Otahuhu substation immediately contacted Electrix, the McConnell Dowell subsidiary which has the national contract to maintain the transmission lines.

"Our guys are on 24-hour call by cellphone, pager or mobile radio, so even if the power went out we are contacted immediately," said Electrix managing director Gavan Jackson.

Mr Jackson was driving into work at the time but found, when he got to the office, that his staff were already at the site.

"It's all pretty automatic. No one comes running to me to say, 'what shall we do?'

VECTOR

The Auckland lines company mobilised its "major incident team" chaired by service delivery manager Steve Mutton, which kept key customers such as hospitals and major industries informed as Electrix raced to restore power.

When Transpower restored supply, Vector brought power on in a priority order starting with hospitals, water and sewerage pumps and other essential services, followed by the central business district, businesses and, lastly, homes. POLICE Auckland City police mobilised a district emergency management plan for the first time since the power crisis of the late 1990s.

A business continuity plan was also activated after most of the city's 11 police stations were forced to close by the power cut.

Acting District Commander Detective Superintendent Gavin Jones ordered police on to points duty at some of the 300 intersections where traffic lights went out. Staff from the closed stations and other officers were transferred from desk duties on to the roads to handle priority calls.

TRANSIT NZ

Transit's northern operations manager Joseph Flanagan said when the highway agency got power back at its traffic management unit on the northern side of the bridge about 9am, it logged delays in the northbound lanes on the southern motorway caused by traffic lights failing at the off-ramps.

A fifth northbound lane was opened up on the harbour bridge about 1.30pm, two hours earlier than usual, because of the volume of traffic heading home before the rush-hour.

AUCKLAND CITY COUNCIL

Civil defence manager Mike McQuillan put the city's civil defence team on standby, and activated a full emergency operations centre in Bledisloe House about 9.30am. Between 30 and 40 staff covered planning, utility lifelines, operations, welfare and public information.

Civil defence officer Jane Lodge said the teams gathered information from Vector, Watercare and other agencies and started planning for emergency accommodation in the event that commuters could not get home to places such as Waiheke.

Operations manager Grant Ockleston, seconded from his usual job running the city's stormwater and closed landfills, said most water reservoirs held a day's supply so there was no risk of the city going dry, but the sewerage system depended on pumps which stopped during the power cut.

"They have about four hours worth of dry-weather storage before they would start discharging sewage into the harbour," he said.

They began discharging yesterday about 12.30pm.

MANUKAU CITY COUNCIL

Manukau's emergency operations centre was put on standby but was never activated because the cut affected only part of the city, particularly Howick and Pakuranga.

There was also a power cut for about 45 minutes from about 11.15am which blacked out the shopping mall and other central city buildings, but power was restored before the council needed to do anything.

VEOLIA TRANSPORT

Auckland's train operator general manager Chris White was already at Britomart Station inspecting other weather-induced signalling problems when the power went out.

Mr White activated a pre-prepared emergency plan to send out about 20 staff to operate signals on the suburban train tracks manually until the power came back on. Six trains that were running at the time crept slowly in to Britomart and were replaced by shuttle trains between Britomart and Newmarket to minimise the need for signals.

BUSINESS

The country's biggest company, Fonterra, sent most of the 700 staff in its Princes St head office home at 10.30am. Only "core services" such as the international call centre and treasury operation stayed on deck, powered by an emergency generator.