Fire forces power prices up

Hot-water heating was cut and wholesale power prices skyrocketed in the North Island yesterday after a fire beneath transmission lines in the Marlborough Sounds forced Transpower to take the Cook Strait power cable out of service.

The link was taken out as a safety precaution to protect the lines and allow firefighters to tackle a blaze in a pine plantation at Port Underwood.

With no power heading north across Cook Strait and generators out for repairs at Huntly and Otahuhu, the backup Government-owned diesel plant at Whirinaki was cranked up.

It was then water heating was cut to some consumers and prices spiked in the North Island to more than six times the average of the past week.

The link was out for about four hours and restored around 3pm when the fire was put out.

Transpower chief executive Patrick Strange said the grid was especially vulnerable to wires being hit, lightning and fires beneath cables during its $3.5 billion upgrade.