Massive power cut hits Auckland, Northland
By MICHAEL FOX - Stuff.co.nz
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
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remind me where south canterbury is again?
Auckland is 1/3 of the country GDP. So it's a bit of a problem if it loses power. Sort of like New York losing power, but a much smaller scale. Bit like Fonterra putting the payout down by a couple of dollars. Not all of us in Auckland were without power. It was probably a much more serious problem in Northland. It's amazing that so many people have nothing better to do than complain about Auckland. The majority that do are simply jelous. Go back to the farm, the country needs you produce!
c'mon ya jafas! South Canterbury has to put up with 3 weeks without power in june 2006. Harden up!
On one news they spent most of the report going on about how a few people couldnt get a damn coffee...never mind all of Whangarei, and im guessing Northland, was without traffic lights, some schools were sending students home and that a whole days worth of surgeries had to be cancelled....But hey, glad you guys got your coffee, that hour of so wait must have been hell
Boo Hoo Auckland loses power & the world comes to a stop. Cry me a river
It's funny reading about the misinformed people saying we are a third world country. Not very up with the play are you people?
Does no one still remember the huge blackout that occurred in the northeast of North America in 2003, affecting about 55 million people?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003
So would all of you say that the USA and Canada are third world countries as well? Get informed before you post rubbish.
well as someone that works for a power company and spent the part of the morning while the power was still out it wasnt on overhead line that went it was within a substation. and btw all your power company will not and i mean not pay for any food lost during a power outage
I have lived in Fiji for the past 22 years and i don't remember a Power cut and Water supply being cut all these years. During cyclones the power is purposely switched off for 2 -3 hours for safety reasons. NZ infrastructure is poor than third world.
Afternoon all. It really wasn't Auckland affected too much. Right here CBD, central city, we had to drudge along until pub lunch time....
No power for the whole country north of the Harbour Bridge though, that's quite newsworthy.
Out west, North Shore and Albany etc., that's perhaps a third of Auckland.
It's the whole country North, right up to Cape Reinga, that's the scary bit. A lot of regional hospitals, resthomes, and businesses. Fortunate indeed it was only 2-4 hours.
Have a lovely weekend.
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I'm am electronics technician working in Christchurch, I find it that amazing that the fault happened at all. It was caused by a transmission line coming in contact with a tree! When you think of the complexity of the grid you would assume such trivial things such line maintenance especially lines operating at such high capacity would be paramount. Just goes to show you how much money is being put back into infrastructure. Which brings me to another point New Zealand needs more power stations, one nuclear power station in the North island would be nice. Hell build one down here maybe I could get a job that pays better.