Massive power cut hits Auckland, Northland

BY MICHAEL FOX

A major power outage which hit parts of Auckland and the entire Northland region this morning also caused the Marsden Point oil refinery to be shut down.

Power has now been restored to Auckland and Northland, say police, after the blackout which saw 280,000 people without electricity for several hours.

Marsden Point communications manager Greg McNeill said no oil had been released as a result of the shutdown.

"The only visible part of the process is flaring - which is part of our safeguarding system," he said.

"There has been no uncontained release of product from the refinery and all but essential staff were moved without incident to safe assembly points.

"Power has now been restored and we're working through our procedures to bring the plant back to full operation as safely and quickly as possible."

A spokesman for Whangarei police said they had reports of a fire at the refinery but said it was just "unusually large flares" as a result of the shutdown.

Marsden Point is New Zealand's sole oil refinery, which provides 70 percent of the country's domestic petrol.

OUTAGE CAUSE

Transpower spokeswoman Rebecca Wilson said investigations by the company had confirmed "a forklift carrying a [shipping] container hit the line near Otahuhu" just after 8am this morning.

The result was a loss of power to Northland and parts of west Auckland as well as north of the harbour bridge, affecting about 280,000 consumers.

"A circuit on the Otahuhu to Henderson 220 kV line tripped while the other circuit was out for maintenance, causing loss of supply for North Auckland and Northland."

The company had to bring the line which was down for maintenance back up when the outage occurred.

Ms Wilson said it took time to get the line back into operation, especially when it was carrying such a load, about 600 megawatts.

"It takes a lot longer than what people would expect."

Ms Wilson said parts of Whangarei and Kaikohe were the last to get their power back.

Transpower had earlier expected all power to be restored by 9.30am.

The incident was being investigated.

TRAFFIC DISRUPTED

It is understood traffic lights were also affected by the cut, causing delays.

Earlier, North Shore resident Calle Durham said she and her workmates were sitting in their Albany office in the dark.

She said power had gone out across the North Shore.

"All the traffic lights aren't working. It's been pretty dodgy in the intersections," she said.

Police have appealed for drivers to "take additional care".

However across the bridge, an Auckland City Council spokeswoman said there had been no reports of traffic lights being affected in the city there.

Meanwhile, police said they are still fielding a large number of calls in relation to the outage. 

A spokesman for the Fire Service said they had half a dozen power cut-related calls and a couple of people were stuck in elevators.

CONCERN OVER 'UNDERBUILD'

Transpower had always been concerned about the "underbuild", which allowed companies to operate under high-voltage power lines, Ms Wilson said.

We do have a corridor management policy which does not allow that now, within certain safety areas."

There were guidelines but the "underbuild" issue went back years to when industry was allowed to build under power lines.

- with MICHAEL FIELD, CLIO FRANCIS and NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News