A tough week for the Far North’s power – and what was happening behind the scenes
Over the last couple of weeks, the Far North has experienced a run of outages that has tested patience, trust, and confidence in the resilience of our network.
I want to acknowledge that impact upfront and apologise for the inconvenience that they have caused.
Power cuts are frustrating when you’re in the dark, managing a health condition, running a business, or trying to cook dinner for the whānau. I’ve heard the frustration, seen the social media commentary, and spoken directly with people who feel let down.
I want to explain what happened, why some of our decisions took time, and reassure our community – who are the owners of Top Energy – that your network is designed and run to be reliable, even if, like every electricity network in the world, it cannot be 100% outage free.
The outages on 31 October and 6 November, while affecting many of the same areas, were not related. One was caused by a tree in the line, the other by a catastrophic failure of the 33kV switchboard at Kaikohe substation. The situation was further complicated by separate weather and vegetation faults on other parts of the network.
At the same time, some of our normal backup was not available. Ngāwhā geothermal power station was undergoing its annual maintenance, and reconfiguring the network, installing additional diesel generation, and managing the loss of key assets was complex and took time.
This context doesn’t diminish the impact on you, but it is important for understanding what we were dealing with.
A rare and serious failure at Kaikohe
The 33kV switchboard failure at Kaikohe was a highly unusual and alarming event in equipment that should have had a life of many decades. We are working with the manufacturer to understand exactly what happened.
Fortunately, we can dismantle switchgear at Ngāwhā to provide a replacement circuit breaker which will be installed in the coming weeks. A replacement will be imported from France, when this arrives in March it will be installed at Ngāwhā to replace the unit we have taken.
Working with the manufacturer, specialist experts and our inhouse team, the equipment will be dismantled, installed, tested and commissioned at Kaikohe. Once we are satisfied, we can return the network to its normal configuration and remove backup generation. This should be complete by the end of November.
Why we couldn’t “just get in there”
In the first hour of the outage, we did not have a clear picture of what had happened – we knew the doors on the substation had been blown open by the explosive blast from the failure and the substation was full of smoke. From this we knew that we were dealing with a potentially highly volatile and dangerous situation.
When you see lights go out on this scale, the natural question is: “Why aren’t you in there fixing it right now?” The answer is safety.
Immediately after the fault there were real and unknown risks inside the substation. We had to confirm there was no fire, no live or unstable equipment, and no risk to crews.
Until Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) and our own specialists were satisfied the site was safe, we could not send people in to start inspections and restoration.
That safety-first approach can create a communication gap. In those early hours, we often cannot answer the questions everyone (including us) most wants answered: What exactly failed? How bad is it? How long will this take? Was anyone hurt?
I understand that can feel like a vacuum and fuel speculation online.
In that phase we will say - we are investigating and will provide updates as soon as we have verified information. When we knew the situation, we provided as much information as we could within 40 minutes of the incident.
The complexity you don’t see
From the outside, a power cut can look simple: power off / power on.
Behind that are some unavoidable complexities:
- Fault indicators and protection systems give us clues, not complete answers.
- Crews must physically inspect substations or patrol lines, often in the dark, to make sure it is safe to re-liven.
- To keep as many people on as possible, we may run the network in temporary configurations, for example tying feeders together or running diesel generation at Omanaia, Moerewa or Mt Pokaka – which must be tightly managed and monitored.
During the days following the failure we reconfigured parts of the network and installed diesel generation at Moerewa and Mt Pokaka. We also brought OEC3 at Ngāwhā back early from planned maintenance as soon as it was safe and certified to do so, restoring an important layer of backup. At the same time crews were investigating and restoring multiple weather and tree-related faults.
Some people have suggested we overstated the weather. To be clear, there were several MetService thunderstorm warnings and a lightning warning in place. Conditions were patchy, many saw only light rain, but in parts of the network it was enough to push trees and branches into lines and trigger faults.
Trees, maintenance and shared responsibility
Questions have been asked about whether we are doing enough on vegetation control. The short answer is, we take it seriously, and it is a shared responsibility.
Under the Electricity (Hazards from Trees) Regulations 2003, landowners are legally required to keep trees on their property clear of lines. Our responsibility as the lines company is to:
- identify trees growing too close to lines
- issue cut or trim notices
- and provide the first cut free of charge.
We operate a planned vegetation management programme of $3m each year. We inspect and clear trees that are growing into our lines, within safety rules, environmental limits and property rights. We have no ability to trim or fell trees that are in fall distance according to the current regulations.
No electricity network is immune from faults
No electricity network can promise to be outage-free, particularly in a region like ours with fast-growing trees, challenging terrain and long exposed lines.
It is the reality we design and operate within, and it is our job to manage that risk.
What you can do to be prepared
Major events like this are also a reminder that it’s wise to be prepared:
- Have a basic outage kit (torches, batteries, gas cooking option, bottled water).
- If you rely on medical equipment, make sure you have an emergency plan in place with your provider.
- Use surge protection to help safeguard appliances and equipment.
Practical guidance is available on our website:
www.topenergy.co.nz/tell-me-about/power-and-saving/prepare-for-a-power-outage
What next
To everyone affected by these outages, you are right to be frustrated, and you are right to expect answers. We always appreciate the support and patience of our community during these times.
This has been a rare and serious failure at a key site, compounded by separate weather and vegetation faults. It is also a reminder of the fragility that comes with our geography and climate.
Our job now is to fix the damaged equipment at Kaikohe as well as learn from what happened – technically and in how we communicate – and show those improvements.
I want to acknowledge our crews and contractors. Many came back from leave or family commitments and worked long hours to restore power and put extra safeguards in place.
You’ll hear more from us as the investigation and repairs progress. In the meantime, we’ll keep doing the work, and we’ll keep fronting up.