Hawke's Bay and Gisborne power outage

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Overview of the situation (see updates below)
Flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle caused extensive damage at our Redclyffe substation in Hawke’s Bay, resulting in the loss of electricity supply to Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti. We also suffered damage at Whirinaki substation and a number of towers were impacted.

In the hours and days following the cyclone, we restored grid-supplied power to the local lines companies that distribute electricity to homes and businesses in these regions (Unison Energy and Firstlight Network, formerly Eastland Network).

We have made good progress on medium-term solutions and have now restored most of the region to it usual level of grid-supplied electricity security, although more work is needed to restore full security to parts of Napier and Hastings fed from Redclyffe. While our initial response to the event is complete, our recovery effort on the ground will continue for the next few months.

We are considering our options for the future of our Redclyffe site, but the work we have already done reduces the chance of our equipment being impacted by flooding again.

Right now, we’re doing new flood risk modelling which takes into account the lessons from Cyclone Gabrielle. This will help us make long-term decisions about a permanent option that provides a high level of electricity supply security to Hawke’s Bay while striking the right balance of resilience and cost-effectiveness for local residents and businesses.

Thank you once again to all our amazing staff, crews and contractors who have worked tirelessly to restore power to as many people as quickly as possible, and to address the damage to our sites and assets to restore security of power supply.

UPDATE (10am Thursday 6 July)

We have continued to work towards restoring the security of its electricity transmission grid in most of Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti to its level before Cyclone Gabrielle. While we aren’t quite there yet we have made significant progress, reducing the risk of power cuts for local consumers connected through our lines company partners Unison Networks and Firstlight Network.

We now have additional resilience to cope with things like storms and lightning strikes that can affect the transmission system, as well as equipment faults that can occur at any time. Previously, a single fault in certain parts of the system would have resulted in extensive power cuts to some areas.

Unfortunately, the extensive flood damage to the Redclyffe substation means that parts of Napier and Hastings supplied from Redclyffe by Unison Networks will remain on reduced security until September when work to rebuild the final protection systems can be completed. We will do everything we can to minimise the chance of any outages, and to ensure that we get power restored as quickly as possible if any outages do happen.

Our Whirinaki substation was also flooded by Cyclone Gabrielle. We restored the substation’s ability to support regional transmission within eight days and it has since been made ready to supply electricity to Pan Pac Forest Product's mill when it is operational again.

Transpower staff, crews, and contractors have put in 38,000 hours of work restoring power in the region and progressively restoring security since Cyclone Gabrielle hit on February 14. We have achieved a significant amount in record time and we would like to thank our service providers for their efforts along with our local lines company partners Unison Networks and Firstlight Network.

We’d also like to thank Genesis Energy for working around the clock to deliver a reliable electricity supply from the local Waikaremoana Power Scheme, which has been critical for keeping the lights on over the last four months.

We also continue to consider the long-term future for the Redclyffe substation. Options include raising the substation at its present location to improve resilience or moving all or part of it to a new site. We have engaged experts to produce updated flood modelling for the site and will be raising critical equipment to improve flood resilience in the interim.

UPDATE (2pm Friday 31 March)

We have completed further work to boost security of electricity supply in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti but residents need to be aware that the risk of power outages remains higher than before Cyclone Gabrielle.

This work involved bypassing the flood-damaged Redclyffe substation to create two new circuits connecting the Tuai substation, which takes supply from Genesis Energy’s Waikaremoana Power Scheme, directly to the Fernhill substation in Hastings.

Damage to Redclyffe during Cyclone Gabrielle had meant the two regions were reliant on just one circuit between the two functioning substations.

A fault on that single circuit would have resulted in power cuts to all of Tairāwhiti and some of the parts of Hawke’s Bay that electricity distributor Unison Networks supplies from the Fernhill substation.

This provides additional security and significantly reduces the risk of outages for residents and businesses. However, it’s important that people remember that the risk of outages remains higher than usual until we can fully restore or replace the flood-damaged Redclyffe substation.

If an outage did happen on our transmission equipment, working with our local line company partners we would expect to be able to restore power relatively quickly. This could be from a few minutes to a matter of hours, depending on the cause.

The work is part of a programme of ongoing activity to restore resilience into the Hawke’s Bay network. Earlier work connected both of the 220kV circuits that bring high-voltage electricity into the region from the Wairakei substation near Taupo to Unison’s local low voltage network In Napier.

That work maximised the amount of electricity that could be brought into the region to complement the local supply from Genesis’ Waikaremoana scheme.

Our crews have been working incredibly hard in the six weeks since the cyclone hit to initially restore supply and then work on improving electricity security for the people of the region. A big thank you is due to our service providers, local lines company partners and Genesis Energy for their efforts getting power restored.

There is still more work to be done to fully restore electricity security to the region, and the continued support and patience from the wider community makes a big difference to our crews on the ground.

UPDATE (9am Tuesday 14 March)

We completed the next stage of a partial restoration of our cyclone damaged Redclyffe substation on Friday.

This enables Unison Networks to draw supply from an additional 220kV line into the region, increasing capacity and improving reliability. Unison was able to take the additional supply following work early Sunday morning.

A huge effort has gone into restoring supply into the region after Cyclone Gabrielle flooded our critical Redclyffe substation on the morning of 14 February. Along with our service providers and our local lines company partners Unison and Eastland Network in Tairāwhiti, we achieved in a matter of days or weeks what would normally take months to deliver.

There is still a lot to do over coming weeks to continue to add additional resilience into the regional network, as well as assessing long-term options to fully restore or relocate Redclyffe. But the work we completed Friday maximises supply into the region and provides a measure of stability.

However, the region remains on reduced security until Redclyffe is fully restored, meaning there is a higher risk of power cuts if faults happen on the system. We will continue to pay close attention to the region and are doing everything we can to manage the risk and keep the lights on.

See our media release for more information.

UPDATE (1:30pm Thursday 2 March)

We are continuing to work with Unison to increase the supply of electricity to Napier via our bypass of the damaged Redclyffe substation.

This work will require a short outage (likely less than an hour) for some customers at 1am on Friday morning to put a new transformer in place. This will increase electricity supply into Unison’s network and help improve reliability for customers already reconnected. Completing the work overnight minimises the impact of the outage on consumers.

More information about the outage and what areas will be affected will be available on Unison’s website or via its social media channels. We apologise for any inconvenience from the outage.

Local lines companies Unison and Eastland Network in Tairāwhiti have done a tremendous amount of hard work to get people reconnected following the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle. We’re also really proud of the effort our people and service providers have put in working with them to get electricity restored.

The graph below shows the restoration of load since the sudden disruption on 12 February. The light blue line shows normal Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne electricity consumption (or load) before the cyclone, and the dark blue line shows how load has been restored (see more detail on this in yesterday’s Market Operations Weekly Report).

With around 2,000 consumers still to be connected – mostly in harder to reach rural areas heavily impacted by the cyclone – and some significant industrial load still not being used, we’re not quite back to normal in terms of electricity use, but we are close.

However, the massive disruption to people’s lives in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti from the cyclone is measured by much more than megawatts. We are committed to continuing to support our local lines company partners and your communities as you continue with the recovery.

UPDATE (Midday Thursday 23 February)

Immediate work to restore enough power supply to local lines companies for homes and businesses in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti has now been completed. While we have a lot of work ahead to increase resilience and implement permanent fixes, our thanks go to all our staff, our Service Providers and Unison crews who have helped to get us to this point. We are extremely grateful for all your efforts.

Around 4,000 homes and businesses in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti still do not have power due to damage to local lines networks and ongoing issues gaining access to do repair work. Both Unison and Eastland have advised that restoring outlying rural areas may take several weeks in some places.

Unison’s Hawke’s Bay restoration map on its website and Facebook page gives an up-to-date picture of where power has now been restored and areas planned to restore next.

More rain is forecast this week, which may complicate the recovery further. At this stage we do not expect any further impact on our substations.

Yesterday we completed work to secure a tower in Hawke’s Bay where a slip had taken away the ground underneath one leg. All access to the tower by road has been destroyed during the cyclone creating a challenge for repairs. We used a helicopter to fly in a digger to install guys to take the load from the leg which has lost its foundation. The tower is now secure, and we will be working on a permanent solution. We continue to survey our transmission lines for slips near them and any other damage and will make immediate repairs when required.

As loads return to local networks, we again urge those in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne who do have power to be mindful of their electricity use to take pressure off the local lines networks and support their restoration efforts.

Our thoughts remain with those in the region who have been impacted by the cyclone and power outages, we thank you for your continued patience and support for our teams and crews on the ground.

UPDATE (Midday Wednesday 22 February)

Our lines company partner Unison Networks has announced it has restored power to most of urban Napier, including connecting power into Taradale.

As of 8.30am this morning, less than 4,000 consumers remain without power in Hawke’s Bay region following damage to the network caused by Cyclone Gabrielle last week.

It has been a huge effort from Unison working with our crews to restore power to nearly 70,000 customers since the cyclone hit last Monday night.

Unison’s Hawke’s Bay restoration map on its website and Facebook page gives an up-to-date picture of where power has now been restored and areas planned to restore next.

Eastland Network in Tairāwhiti has also taken great strides with fewer than 500 customers still without power.

Both Unison and Eastland have advised that restoring outlying rural areas may take several weeks in some places because of the extent of the damage to local electricity lines networks and ongoing issues gaining access to do repair work.

Rain is forecast this week, which may complicate the recovery further. We do not expect any further impact on our substations.

We continue to survey our transmission lines for slips near them and any other damage and will make immediate repairs when required.

We also continue to work on assessing the extent of damage to our Redclyffe and Whirinaki substations and what is required to return them to full service.

We remain thankful to Unison and Eastland for their hard work around the clock to restore power.

And a big thank you to customers in the region for your continued patience and support for our teams and crews on the ground. It gives a big boost to them as they tirelessly tackle the task in front of the region.

UPDATE (1pm Tuesday 21 February)

Our lines company partners Unison in Hawke’s Bay and Eastland Networks in Tairāwhiti continue to put in massive effort to restore their networks and reconnect their customers to power.

They have been working tirelessly since the floods last Tuesday so continue to give them any support you can, and the space to do their work safely.

As loads return to local networks, we urge those in Hawke’s Bay who do have power back to be mindful of their electricity use to take pressure of the local lines networks and support their restoration efforts.

We continue to work on assessing the extent of damage to our Redclyffe and Whirinaki substations and what is required to return them to service.

Our focus has understandably been on bypassing Redclyffe and restoring functionality in one part of the substation that was not so heavily damaged in order to get the lights back on in Napier and Hastings, but we have also had separate crews working at Whirinaki since the middle of last week.

Whirinaki solely supplies the Pan Pac Forest Products plant, which was also flooded, and serves as an entry point to the grid for Contact Energy’s Whirinaki generation plant.

The Whirinaki substation is in better shape than Redclyffe, but it has also been affected by well over a metre of water across the site. We are hoping that we will be able to return it to service within a week and are working closely with Pan Pac and Contact Energy on this.

We are also continuing to survey our transmission lines for slips near them and any other damage and making immediate repairs when required.

UPDATE (11:30am Monday 20 February)

Our local lines partner Unison Networks has put in a mammoth effort over the last 24 hours to get power restored to 73% of Napier, up from 34% yesterday.

This effort involved the challenging task of reconfiguring its network to reach more of Napier from our Whakatu substation in the southeast, which we were able to restore power to on Friday afternoon.

Unison has also continued its work reconnecting Hastings, with power restored to 95% of the town and surrounding areas, up from 91% yesterday.

These numbers are the latest as of 8.30am this morning.

We continue to work closely with Unison and our partner in Tairāwhiti, Eastland Network, to restore more power to local communities and increase resilience of the network in the two regions.

This includes additional work at the damaged Redclyffe substation to allow Unison to return power to parts of Napier that still cannot be reached from the Whakatu substation. This is a difficult job because of the extent of the damage to the substation and we don’t yet have an estimate for when this work will be complete.

We thank people for their patience as Unison and Eastland crews continue their work to understand the extent of the damage to their networks and safely and progressively restore supply to the area.

We recognise the significant impact that being without power has, particularly after a natural disaster.

Our teams, our service providers, local lines companies and others in the industry have been working tirelessly since Tuesday last week to get as much power restored as quickly as possible.

We will update you again around 12pm tomorrow.

UPDATE (Midday Sunday 19 February)

Our local lines partner Unison Networks is progressively reconnecting households and businesses in Hastings and Napier, with power now restored to 34% of Napier including most of the central business district.

Our partner in Tairāwhiti, Eastland Network, is also making progress reconnecting customers on its cyclone damaged network.

Our latest information from 9am this morning shows that 25,048 properties are still without power in Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti. Details are below:

· Gisborne ~97% restored with 721 off (Eastland)

· Wairoa ~99% restored with 159 off (Eastland)

· Napier ~34% restored with 20,945 off (Unison)

· Hastings ~91% restored with 3,172 off (Unison)

We continue to work closely with both companies to restore more power to local communities and increase resilience in the two regions.

This includes additional work at the damaged Redclyffe substation to allow Unison to return power to parts of Napier that cannot currently be reached from the Whakatu substation, which we were able to restore power to on Friday afternoon. Related to this, Unison is also working to reconfigure its network to reach more of Napier from the Whakatu substation.

We ask people to continue to be patient as Unison and Eastland crews continue their work to understand the extent of the damage to their networks and safely and progressively restore supply to the area.

Access to damaged parts of the network is still a major issue and we are working closely with roading authorities and civil defence to get our crews safely into position to do the necessary work.

We thank everyone involved in the work to get the Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti regions reconnected, including a number of people who helped us dig our way into the Redclyffe substation.

We recognise the significant impact that being without power has, particularly after a natural disaster. Our teams, our service providers, local lines companies and others in the industry continue to work tirelessly to get as much power restored as quickly as possible.

We will update again around 10am tomorrow.

UPDATE (Midday Saturday 18 February)

Now that power is restored to our Whakatu substation northeast of Hastings, Unison Networks is starting to reconnect customers in Napier and Hastings.

Unfortunately, its local network was damaged in the cyclone so this is not an easy or quick job. We ask people to continue to be patient as Unison crews continue their work to understand the extent of the damage to its network and safely and progressively restore supply to the area.

The latest information about restoration progress and plans is on Unison’s website.

We continue to work with Unison and Eastland Network in Tairāwhiti to restore power and increase resilience in the two regions.

This includes additional work at the damaged Redclyffe substation to allow Unison to access electricity that will enable it to return power to parts of Napier that cannot currently be reached from the Whakatu substation.

Genesis Energy is also working hard with us to increase electricity supply in the region, but at the moment one of the biggest constraints is damage from the cyclone to Unison’s and Eastland’s local networks.

We thank everyone involved in the work to get Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti regions reconnected, including a number of people who helped us dig our way into the Redclyffe substation.

We will update again at midday tomorrow.

UPDATE (4:30pm Friday 17 February)

We continued to work with Unison Networks today to bypass the flood-damaged Redclyffe substation in order to reconnect parts of Napier and surrounding areas from our substation at Whakatu.

It has been a massive effort from our crews to gain access to the Redclyffe substation and dig out tonnes of silt so they can safely engineer the bypass. This work has just been completed and Whakatu substation was made available to Unison shortly after 4pm.

However, Hawke’s Bay residents need to be aware that Unison still needs to do considerable work reconfiguring its local network to begin restoring power, where possible to homes and businesses in Hawke’s Bay. This will include urban parts of Napier and some parts of Hastings.

We are continuing to work with Unison on additional options to be able to supply even more power to their network to enable it to connect those that will still be without power after the bypass completion.

We were pleased to hear news from Eastland Network today that they have made good progress reconnecting customers to their local lines network in Tairāwhiti. There were still 2,100 households waiting to be reconnected this morning, down from more than 4,000 yesterday, and we know that Eastland crews are working hard.

We thank everyone involved in the work to get Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti regions reconnected, and we thank everyone affected for their patience and understanding. We have been overwhelmed by the messages that we have received from the community in appreciation of the work our people are doing in such trying conditions.

UPDATE (10:00am Friday 17 February)

Tanspower has advised that - all going well - it expects to complete the bypass of its flooded Redclyffe substation near Taradale this evening.

Redclyffe substation suffered extensive damage during Cyclone Gabrielle and Transpower has been working with Unison Networks to create a bypass for the 220KV high voltage line to enable it to connect to the Whakatu substation north-east of Hastings.

Once the bypass is complete, local lines company Unison Networks will begin progressively restoring power to some but not all homes and businesses in Hawke’s Bay, including urban parts of Napier and some remaining areas of Hastings such as Clive, Te Awanga and Whakatu. This work is expected to take place from Saturday.

More information can be found on our media release.

clearing work

UPDATE (5:30pm Thursday 16 February)

Transpower and Unison Networks crews are continuing to work hard to bypass the flooded Redclyffe substation to begin restoring power to parts of Napier via the Whakatu substation.

Conditions remain extremely challenging for completing this work but, all going well, we expect to complete the bypass in the next day or so. Once we have done this work Unison will be able to begin connecting some but not all homes and businesses in its network.

We will provide a further update once the bypass is in place.

Unison is currently taking 46MW from the national electricity grid, enough to power around 46,000 houses.

Meanwhile we have increased the electricity we are supplying Eastland Network in Tairāwhiti to 44MW (from 30MW), enough to power around 44,000 houses. They are currently taking 31MW, but this number is increasing as they connect more properties.

There are now 99,000 homes and businesses across the North Island without power, many due to damage on local lines networks rather than any issues with Transpower’s grid. Local lines company crews continue to work hard in challenging conditions to restore power as quickly as possible.

We apologise for the continued disruption at this very difficult time.

UPDATE (9:00am Thursday 16 February)

We have continued to increase the amount of power available to local lines companies in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.

We have implemented contingency plans and reconfigured part of the network to make 90MW of power available to Unison Networks and Eastland Network across the region to reconnect some houses and businesses (enough to power around 90,000 homes).

You can read more in our latest media release.

UPDATE (4:00pm Wednesday 15 February)

We continue to work with local lines companies Unison Networks in Hawke's Bay and Eastland Network in Gisborne and Wairoa to reconnect more homes and businesses to power.

We’re supplying electricity into Fernhill substation from the south and north to get the region up and running.

Eastland is taking 24 MW of 30 MW available, which is up slightly from 23 MW this morning, indicating they have ongoing damage to their network preventing them from reconnecting additional customers. 24MW is roughly enough to power 24,000 homes.

Unison has been able to reconfigure its network to reconnect some homes and businesses and is currently taking 40 MW from Fernhill, which is roughly enough to power 40,000 homes. That is up from 27 MW this morning.

We were able to gain access to our flooded Redclyffe substation this afternoon and are currently assessing the damage.

We are working on plans to bypass the Redclyffe substation and bring power to our Whakatu substation to enable Unison to reconnect more homes and businesses. We expect to be able to provide a further update on that work tomorrow.

Transpower will continue to update people both here and on Facebook as the situation becomes clearer. We advise people to follow Civil Defence instructions and stay safe.

Our people are continuing to work tirelessly to manage the grid and keep power flowing where we can. We continue to work closely with local lines companies across the country as they battle against disruptions to their networks as a result of the cyclone.

UPDATE (10:00am Wednesday 15 February)

We continue to work with local lines companies Unison Networks in Hawke's Bay and Eastland Network in Gisborne and Wairoa to reconnect more homes and businesses to power.

We’re supplying electricity into Fernhill substation from the south and north to get the region up and running. We are assessing the flood-damaged Redclyffe substation today and are underway with plans to bypass Redclyffe to continue to restore power.

Unison has been able to reconfigure its network to reconnect homes and businesses and is currently taking 27 MW from the grid, which is roughly enough to power 27,000 homes. At our last update yesterday afternoon it was able to take 17MW.

Eastland is taking 23 MW, up from 10 MW at our last update yesterday.

We do not have visibility of which areas are connected in each region or exactly how many properties are still without power.

While we have electricity available to our local lines company partners in Gisborne and Hawke's Bay, we are continuing to work on options to increase capacity and stay ahead of their ability to reconnect their customers.

Transpower will continue to update people both here and on Facebook as the situation becomes clearer. We advise people to follow Civil Defence instructions and stay safe.

Our people are continuing to work tirelessly to manage the grid and keep power flowing where we can.

The national electricity transmission grid continues to hold up well and we continue to work closely with local lines companies across the country as they battle against disruptions to their networks as a result of the cyclone.

UPDATE (4:30pm Tuesday 14 February)

Transpower has advised that it has been able to restore some power to parts of Hawke's Bay and Gisborne following the outage this morning resulting from Cyclone Gabrielle.

The restored power is not sufficient to power the whole of both regions, and the ability of local lines companies Unison Networks and Eastland Network to restore power to end users depends on the extent of damage to local networks.

Transpower does not have full visibility of that at this stage and communication with the local lines companies is limited because of the disruption to communication systems.

Transpower has bypassed its flooded Redclyffe substation to supply Unison Networks from its Fernhill substation. Unison is taking around 17 MW of electricity from the substation, enough to power around 17,000 households.

Eastland Network has been able to take around 10 MW from Genesis’ Tuai generator to supply parts of Gisborne and Wairoa. This is enough to supply around 10,000 houses.

Transpower continues to work with the local lines companies to provide more power for the rest of the region and repeats its earlier advice that it could take days or weeks to fully restore power.