Mum of sickly baby relieved after planned power outage cancelled

Vector has agreed to postpone a scheduled outage in Auckland during the worst week of weather seen this year. Photo / Doug Sherring

Vector is rescheduling a planned outage in Auckland which was supposed to go ahead on Sunday - at the tail end of the worst week of weather this year.

The routine maintenance outage was scheduled for overnight on Sunday in Mt Eden, where temperatures are predicted to plummet to 9C overnight, according to Metservice.

The work needed was on transformers and would have meant no power for six hours from 11pm for an area near the northern end of Dominion Rd.

One affected resident said she had pleaded with Vector to change the timing over concerns for her already sickly toddler's health.

"We're in Mt Eden and our houses are really old so we need heating - if you turn those heaters off the temperatures just drop," said Sarah, who asked the Herald not to use her last name.

"My baby has a tummy bug and my two-year-old has a really bad cold, but also my neighbour's got a one-and-a-half-year-old [who] was in Starship last week with the flu."

Sarah said if the maintenance was routine then she didn't know why the company couldn't wait until the worst of the wet and wild weather was well and truly over.

"I was really stressing out about it."

Despite calling them several times Vector refused to budge, Sarah said - but after questions from the Herald today, the company says it will reschedule the outage.

"On any day there are numerous projects right across Auckland," said Andre Botha, Vector's chief networks officer.

"It's important we keep up with maintenance on our network so we have less unexpected outages and for safety reasons."

The timing of works was arranged by balancing factors which for the least impact, he said.

"In this case we've been keeping a close eye on weather conditions and have decided to postpone the work.

"Postponements like this happen in a few situations depending on the conditions - except where emergency work is needed for safety reasons."

A new time had not yet been decided but residents would be informed when it was.

Earlier today MainPower backtracked after copping criticism for going ahead with a scheduled power outage in Canterbury.

The decision left about 60 North Canterbury households braving the chill without power today.

MainPower chief executive Bruce Emson apologised, saying common sense should have prevailed.

Yesterday thousands of North Islanders woke up shivering after power cuts in several areas during one of the coldest nights of the year.