Coromandel power cuts hit traders

People in booming Whitianga say they are switched on - but all too often their electricity supply isn't.

A string of blackouts and brownouts adding up to about 10 power supply interruptions a year is plaguing the town and nearby coastal resorts on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Destination Mercury Bay chairman Maurice Te Brake said: "There have been numerous outages in the last three years and they're significant - longer than 15 minutes and up to 21 hours."

Mr Te Brake, who owns the New World supermarket said business people were banding together to try to force distribution company Powerco to speed up power improvements on the peninsula.

"There's only one supply line through part of the journey up to Whitianga and when that goes there's no back-up."

At the five-star Admiralty Lodge, manager Stu Smylie said power cuts were "a nightmare" and recalled handing out candles and torches to guests and throwing out breakfast food from defrosting freezers.

The 21-hour power cut occurred after a storm on July 12 last year, affecting 9000 homes on the peninsula.

But extreme weather and lines vulnerable to falling trees could not be blamed for the power cut at 10.30am on December 30 - peak holiday time and one of the busiest trading days of the year.

Electricity distributor Powerco found the cut was caused by a joint failure on the cable which serves the Whitianga business area and runs across the river and underground through Flaxmill Bay to Cooks Beach.

Powerco's eastern region planning manager Neville Goodwin said yesterday that the company wanted to improve reliability of supply and to "get in front" of the growth in demand.

The company had a $5.6 million list of projects, including doubling the Whitianga substation capacity, putting a second transmission line into Whitianga - between Coroglen and Kaimarama (at the 309 Road junction), maintaining voltage on the back-up line to Whitianga and Coromandel towns, and better checking for faults.

Thames Coromandel District Council said home numbers in Whitianga grew from 2229 to 2730 this year and was expected to be 4000 in a decade.