Biggest power shutdown ever

22 February 2002

Christchurch will have its largest ever planned power interruption on Sunday to allow a new transformer to be installed.

The area affected includes Harewood, Yaldhurst, Masham, Broomfield, Riccarton Park, Hei Hei, Islington, Hornby, Sockburn, Middleton, Wigram, Prebbleton, Templeton and Paparua.

"The work is programmed to begin at 7 am and should take no longer than 30 minutes", Network Operations Manager, Graeme Messervy says.

This is the largest planned shutdown we have ever had to undertake. We now do much more maintenance work on equipment while it is still live. Roughly 15,000 customers will be affected. In this case we do need to interrupt supply to allow the new equipment to be connected as part of a multi-million dollar upgrade of equipment supplying the area.

The timing on a Sunday morning is planned to minimise the impact to the majority of customers.

For more information:

Graeme Messery
Network Operations Manager
Orion New Zealand Limited
Telephone: 03 363 9891