A cat crawling across an outdoor electrical switchgear caused 10,000 people to lose power last night.
The blackout, shortly before 7.30pm, affected homes and businesses in Brookfield, Bellevue, Matua, Otumoetai, Bethlehem, Wairoa and Te Puna.
The power cut affected people in Matua, Otumoetai, Brookfield right through to Te Puna. Photo: Tracy Hardy.
It took around an hour for contractors to restore power to the affected suburbs.
Powerco acting network operations manager Dean Stevenson says the power cut happened after a cat climbed onto outdoor electrical switchgear at the Otumoetai substation.
The cat did not survive the incident.
'All power was restored by 8.25pm,” says Dean, 'following the 7.20pm outage which caused loss of supply to the Greerton, Otumoetai, Matua and Bethlehem areas.”
A caller to the 0800 SUNLIVE news hotline says they heard a loud bang in the Otumoetai area before the power went out.
24 comments
Safety first
Posted on 30-07-2015 13:05 | By Baystyle
May be a good idea to cover high voltage switchgear with screens to keep out cats and possums. RIP cat explorer.
Blaming the feline!
Posted on 30-07-2015 13:35 | By Jenny Argante
If I were the owner of that cat, I'd be suing you for causing its death. Why was the switchgear so vulnerable to the accidental touch of cat, bird or rat? Surely you protect live contact better than that?
Have to ask...
Posted on 30-07-2015 13:39 | By morepork
Why would this not be enclosed so that birds and cats CAN'T take it out (and get killed in the process?)
Damn cats
Posted on 30-07-2015 13:40 | By maildrop
Just a predatory nuisance. Australia is leading the way on cat control.
morepork
Posted on 30-07-2015 14:00 | By Conzar
It comes down to money. Indoor switchgear used to be more expensive than outdoor. However, indoor gear is now the trend when implementing new sub stations.
@Conzar
Posted on 30-07-2015 14:27 | By morepork
Thanks for your comment and the information. I still don't think it would be prohibitively expensive to put some kind of netting over these installations. If the trend is towards indoor, as you say, I guess the old stuff will gradually get phased out.
@maildrop
Posted on 30-07-2015 14:31 | By morepork
While I respect your right to dislike cats, suggesting we should use Australia as a role model is a bridge too far, for me. If I wanted to adopt Australian ideas, I'd be living there.
Eh What?
Posted on 31-07-2015 08:19 | By The author of this comment has been removed.
Invest a cent into the infrastructure? Never! When did you last see lines go underground? The shareholder comes first.
Blame or innocence?
Posted on 31-07-2015 11:54 | By penguin
Was it the volt of the cat that it succumbed to so many killer volts of electricity? Or is there not ample protection from harm currently provided by the power company? Perhaps the company will eventually phase out exposed equipment and offer better protection. Having exposed switch gear is a bit arc(haic)! After all, the cat may just have been exercising its right to switch providers as we have been encouraged to do. All joking aside, though, it
@morepork
Posted on 31-07-2015 14:51 | By maildrop
I can see your point. I dislike Australians almost as much as cats. However, with this nuisance they do appear to be onto it so credit where credit is due. I prefer to take the best ideas from around the globe because I don't think any country gets it all correct, including NZ. Sorry, I know that's not the Kiwi mindset.
Power lines
Posted on 01-08-2015 06:20 | By Devils-advocate
covered by netting......Really?? Perhaps some of you need an education on how electricity and switchgear works.
@Devils advocate
Posted on 03-08-2015 16:00 | By morepork
OK, I DID say "netting" but I wasn't advocationg just chucking some fish net over a live outdoor switch. Would "wire trellis" or "latticework" (so it stays "open" to dissipate heat but is still inaccessible by animals other than humans) be more sensible/acceptable? The point is that it wouldn't cost a lot (in the context of what the switch costs anyway) to provide this protection.
@maildrop
Posted on 03-08-2015 16:11 | By morepork
I agree with you about looking at good ideas from all over. I don't think that is "not the Kiwi mindset" (certainly is part of THIS kiwi's mindset...) Australia's attempts to control cats are highly controversial and arguably unsuccessful. I wouldn't like to see it here. Remember also, a disproportionate number of the world's "good ideas" came out of NZ; I don't think we need an Australian solution for dealing with cats, any more than we needed a "right-hand rule" designed for a city with trams... The trouble is that once these things are done, it can take a very long time to undo them.
Evidently....
Posted on 05-08-2015 01:59 | By GreertonBoy
It wasn't the voltage that killed the cat.... it was when it hit its head on the space station after the shock... But seriously.... you cant 'cover' every piece of electrical equipment, our power bills would quadruple.... switch stations are fenced to keep people out and it is a rare (or in this case, not rare but well done) occurrence for a possum, bird, rat or cat to cause such a blackout... things are fine, just don't give them an excuse to put the cost of electricity up!
@morepork
Posted on 05-08-2015 07:53 | By maildrop
I do find it amazing and a little amusing that NZ spends millions, through a highly funded department like DOC, to control pests like rats and stoats to stop them killing a few native birds, when the overwhelming guilty party is fluffy whiskers and his mates. Kiwis (not the birds) have their heads in the sand on this and choose to ignore it, and will ultimately waste millions of dollars chasing the wrong animal. If you are the keeper of the "good ideas" register then put this in the bad idea column. There is no statistical evidence to suggest NZ contributes a disproportionate amount of good ideas in the global register. That's just your Kiwi mindset on display there.
@maildrop
Posted on 06-08-2015 15:23 | By morepork
Given the population of NZ vs the population of the World, there would be no statistical reason to expect ANYTHING special to come out of here. I won't mention the track record we have for many kinds of sporting activities because that is a different kind of "Excel"lence, but just in response to your parting shot: There IS solid evidence that NZ contributes "a disproportionate amount of good ideas in the global register"...From splitting the atom (Lord Rutherford) to defending London (Sir Keith Park), to jet boats, bunjy jumping and zorbing, not to mention Kiwis currently working in high-powered jobs around the globe (like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in USA, and NASA.) Plus all the "little things": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Zealand_inventors. My "mindset" is one of pride, but not blindness. Oh, and I also love cats...
@morepork
Posted on 07-08-2015 16:35 | By maildrop
Splitting the atom, tick. Bunjy jumping and zorbing...wow. Thank god for Kiwi inventiveness. Roll out the barrel.
@maildrop
Posted on 10-08-2015 10:43 | By morepork
My point was that a tiny nation,capable of doing these things, is more than capable of preventing cats causing power blackouts, without needing advice from Australia.
Morepork
Posted on 11-08-2015 08:01 | By Kenworthlogger
The rest of the world laught at NZ but thats ok you keep thinking what you want. One day you should go overseas and see how far we really are behind the rest of the world.
@Kenworthlogger
Posted on 11-08-2015 12:32 | By morepork
I lived for years (apart from occasional visits home) in London, Madrid, Dusseldorf, travelling around Europe and Asia, and the west Coast of USA. I don't need to go overseas to expand my horizons or gain understanding of how the world sees us (and, after nearly 30 years, I am very glad to be home). NZ enjoys a very good reputation overseas. May be it is you that needs to get out more...? Did you have a comment about cat control or protecting our power supply?
Morepork
Posted on 11-08-2015 12:50 | By Kenworthlogger
Next time you are in one of those countries try asking someone what they think of NZ and you will find most of them will say New who?
BBQ
Posted on 12-08-2015 00:31 | By Secret Squirrel
Without the condiments seems to have been the cause of the blackout?
@Kenworth
Posted on 12-08-2015 15:52 | By morepork
Certainly that was true 30 years ago. Few people had any idea who or where we are and most thought we were part of Oz because they showed us on the same page of the Atlas at school. (I remember a guy in a poker game in San Franscisco thinking the Auckland Harbour bridge ran from Sydney to Auckland..."Well, we have a bridge that goes to Oakland...") I actually used to worry about us getting too "well known" but history has shown my fears were mostly groundless. I'm not sure where you got the idea that we have a poor image overseas; I guess it only takes an immigrant or two saying everything is better back home than here, but without the eyeglasses of nostalgia, it isn't. I am glad to be home and don't plan further travel. Modern communications have put us well and truly on the map.
Morepork
Posted on 13-08-2015 17:08 | By Kenworthlogger
Just a clarification. I did not mean we had a poor image overseas but comparing the way we do things and how far behind in technology we were. I saw asian countries had digital television years before we did. They had cheap broadband long before we could ever get it, i remember a year or 2 ago you couldnt get broadband in new papamoa sub divisions until other people disconeected due to capacity. I could go on with more but it is slowly getting better. But we are way behind the times in general.
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