Electricity demand reached an all-time high tonight, causing blackouts to some parts of the country, Transpower says.
Thousands of people in the central North Island had no power last night after lines company Unison responded to Transpower's plea to lessen the burden on the network.
A Unison spokesperson says the firm's only option to comply is to perform a series of rolling blackouts.
Its website estimates around 9500 homes were affected in areas around Taupō, Hastings and Napier.
Other lines companies had been asked to reduce load and some are managed to do so without turning off supply, Transpower says.
Powerco, which runs the supply in Tauranga, who did its bit to respond to Transpower's request for electricity lines companies nationwide to reduce load on the national grid.
Controlled hot water systems across Powerco's electricity network areas were temporarily switched off to reduce network load and avoid the need to disconnect any customers.
Powerco General Manager Service Delivery and Systems Operations, Karen Frew, says customers' hot water systems will progressively be switched back on through the night once peak power load has passed and Transpower provides instructions to do so.
'Thank you to our customers for your understanding.”
The situation should have been resolved around 8pm, once peak demand for electricity had passed.
5 comments
Get used to it
Posted on 10-08-2021 07:22 | By Kancho
Generation will not meet the need of electric vehicles and population demands , there has been plenty of warnings . We just don't have enough and renewable sources of power . Power prices will soar to build more generation. We burn more coal hardly . This is the end result of electricity reforms the national government said would be cheaper and better and sold off. Our infrastructure isn't robust enough to keep plugging in electric vehicles. Beware this government is saying similar stuff on water supply.
Not Good Enough
Posted on 10-08-2021 07:56 | By Yadick
Power usage was in high demand because it was our coldest night in a long time. People needed heaters, heat pumps etc because they were cold. Why turn the power off on them. Turn the country's street lights off, turn closed shop lights off. I'll bet while people froze places like Auckland, Wellington etc still looked like Las Vegas.
To Cindy.....
Posted on 10-08-2021 08:29 | By The Professor
......please take note!! What's going to happen when we all start plugging in our cars on a night time to charge them for work the next day? Power outages are going to be as common as rainfall. Another reason why the Government should abandon the ridiculous approach to saving the planet!!
Mmm
Posted on 10-08-2021 08:50 | By philiphallen
Stop charging all your bloody usless EV,s overnight. This event shows just how thick the greenies are when it comes the power demands of the country. Without Huntly burning coal/gas most of the north island would have been affected.
Grid overloaded
Posted on 10-08-2021 09:07 | By Walbuck
Phew - Sure glad I didn't buy a Brand new Toyota Electric Ute for use on my farm now
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