Power outages affect more than 3100 Whanganui residents

Powerco contractors parked outside the Hatricks Wharf Substation as power outages affect Whanganui households. Photo / Bevan Conley

A recent series of short power outages in central Whanganui have affected thousands of Powerco customers.

A Powerco spokesperson said outages had affected customers in the Hatricks Wharf and Durie Hill areas over the last few weeks.

“There were outages, lasting approximately 10-15 seconds on Friday 16, Saturday 17 and Thursday, June 22.

“Between 1425 and up to 3136 customers were affected at a time.”

Powerco said the outages were caused by a build-up of carbon that damaged three insulators and caused the flow of power “to momentarily stop”.

“Power came back on each time after the recloser determined that the obstruction on the high voltage line had cleared.

“A drone was deployed to patrol the high voltage line in the area.”

Powerco said the insulators were replaced on Saturday, June 24, but it was continuing to monitor the situation,

“We thank customers for their patience while the cause of the repeated outages was found and repaired.”