Akaroa power network upgrade

17 July 2020 at 8:06 am

Orion is undertaking an upgrade to increase the resilience of its power network in Akaroa.

The work involves upgrading its kiosks to make provision for generators to be able to be brought in to power the town in the event of a major emergency, or while Orion undertakes significant maintenance work.

Orion General Manager of Infrastructure, Steve Macdonald says the project means the town will have access to an alternative power supply, if needed.

“With one power line from Duvauchelle feeding Akaroa, we’ve often had no option but to turn the power off when doing line maintenance work.

“Once our kiosks are set up, we can bring generators over the hill, plug them in and keep things running while we do our work.

“It also means that if there’s a major event affecting any of the lines servicing the town, we have the option to bring in and hook up generators to keep everything operating.”

The work will involve power outages on 30 and 31 July, which Orion says it has worked hard to keep to a minimum.

Orion is contacting the impacted customers directly by phone, with those most affected being 91 customers to the south east of the town, who will have power off for the day on Friday 31 July.

“We’ve been conscious not to disrupt businesses, and there will be no power outages to businesses in the commercial area,” said Macdonald.

Around 100 premises will also have brief, up to 30 minute power cuts while Orion hooks up the three generators it is bringing to town to keep the power on for as many customers as possible while they take the kiosks off line to do the work.

Our Work Notice, which can be downloaded, also has a list of the properties affected, when, and more details.

Or, for more information, call Orion Customer Support on 0800 363 9898.