Akaroa provisioned for generators

Akaroa

In July 2020 Orion worked with Broadspectrum, now Ventia, on a major project to improve the reliability and resilience of our network in Akaroa.

We upgraded Orion kiosks to make provision for generators to be brought in to power the town in the event of a major emergency, or while significant maintenance work is underway.

With one power line from Duvauchelle feeding Akaroa, the towns’ power supply was vulnerable in storms, and Orion often had no option but to turn the power off when doing maintenance work.

Orion and Broadspectum worked hard to keep the number of customers without power to a minimum during the two days the project was underway.

While the kiosks were taken off line, generators kept all but 91 customers with power, which was particularly appreciated by businesses in the commercial area.

See: Akaroa power network upgrade

The project has already paid off

In September we were able to plug generators into the upgraded kiosks to keep the power on for thousands of customers in Akaroa township while we replaced three poles in the town.