Update - 11:30am Saturday
With today’s aerial survey nearing completion and after a mammoth effort by our crews, operational staff, contractors and everyone else involved, we’re bringing our storm response efforts to an end.
We’ve restored power to all but a few isolated faults that we’re progressing.
We’d like to especially thank everyone impacted by this weather event for your patience and understanding as we’ve worked tremendously hard to repair the significant damage to our network. And thanks to all of your positive comments and support during these tough few days.
Update - 3:00pm Friday
Aerial Survey – Helicopter
WEL Networks will commence a post-storm network-wide aerial survey via helicopter.
The one-day aerial survey of the overhead electricity network will commence from 9am tomorrow (Saturday, 1 June).
The areas being surveyed are those that are difficult to assess and access from the ground for maintenance, fault restoration and response.
The low flying helicopter will be operating fully within Civil Aviation Authority guidelines.
Our pilot and team will be trying their best to stay clear of any livestock, in particular horses. However, you may wish to take precautionary action if they are likely to be spooked, such as moving them away from paddocks near network power lines and/or moving them to a more secure location.
We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
Update - 9:00am Friday
After a concerted effort from our teams, power was successfully restored to a majority of customers in the Raglan and Te Uku areas last night.
We are now down to low numbers of customers that remain without power and restoration efforts remain our priority today.
We’ve got all available resource working on this and we’ve called in contractor resource to help with the amount of damage we’re needing to repair.
We understand this is a frustrating situation and we thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we continue to work to restore power supply.
Update - 9:00pm Thursday
Our crews continue to work tremendously hard to restore power to customers still impacted by yesterday’s stormy weather.
We hope to have power restored to the vast majority of customers in the Raglan and Te Uku areas in the coming hours using a phased approach. We plan to switch from the temporary generation back to network supply. This will require a brief outage of approximately 15 minutes while this change occurs.
Unfortunately we do anticipate some customers in our network area will still be without power until another concerted effort can kick off at dawn tomorrow.
We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we get everything back to how it should be.
Update - 4:00pm Thursday
We’ve added to the temporary generators we stood up in Raglan last night and we now have three larger generators providing power to the majority of customers in the township.
We hope to broaden this to more customers in the Raglan area and this depends on power use, so we ask people there to please conserve power where at all possible.
Our fault identification work is ongoing and we are making progress. We have network assets in remote places in Raglan and the other pockets of our network that are still without power. We are using helicopters and drones to help with this task, along with on-the-ground crews and specialised test equipment to pinpoint the causes of faults and rectify them.
We are working extremely hard to get the power back on for everyone still impacted. We’ve got all available resource working on this and we’ve called in contractor resource to help with the amount of damage we’re needing to repair. We understand this is a frustrating situation and we thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we continue to work to restore power supply.
Update - 9:00am Thursday
Our teams have a busy day ahead and they are doing their best to restore power as quickly and as safely possible.
Due to the extensive damage sustained across our network, outages remain widespread. The most extensive outage remains in the Raglan area with over 3,000 customers without power.
Generators have been provided overnight to our most vulnerable customers including the Raglan Rest Home and Hospital.
Helicopters and drones will be used to assist with asset patrols (power poles, lines, equipment) in the Raglan and Te Akau areas today. The purpose of this is to locate faults quickly.
For those who remain without power, we understand that this is frustrating for you and we thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to repair damage across the network.
A lot of outages have been caused by fallen trees that brought down powerlines. Treat powerlines as live at all times. If you see a downed powerline stay well clear and call us immediately on 0800 800 935.
If you are medically dependent on power, please follow your emergency backup plan and call 111 in an emergency.
Take care and stay safe everyone.
Update - 8:30pm Wednesday
Our crews continue to work hard to restore power to those impacted by today’s storm. Around 13,000 customers have had their power restored but outages remain widespread across our network and there are still around 4,500 customers that we are working to restore power to.
The most extensive outage remains the Raglan area with over 3,000 customers without power. We have sourced generators and deployment is starting with our most vulnerable customers such as rest homes.
Given the breadth of damage across the network It’s unlikely that everyone’s power will be restored tonight, so we ask you to please prepare your families and loved ones for the possibility of a night without power.
Safety is our top priority and while we’ll have crews working through the night they may need to stop working if conditions are unsafe.
For those who remain without power, we understand that this is frustrating for you and we thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to repair damage across the network.
A lot of outages have been caused by fallen trees that brought down powerlines. Treat powerlines as live at all times. If you see a downed powerline stay well clear and call us immediately on 0800 800 935.
If you are medically dependent on power, please follow your emergency backup plan and call 111 in an emergency.
Take care and stay safe everyone.
Storm causing widespread damage
The current bad weather is causing widespread damage across the WEL network. At present we have 27 unplanned outages affecting approximately 17,500 customers.
While some of the causes of faults are still unknown, downed trees have been identified as the cause of several outages.
“Our control room is restoring supply to as many customers as possible and all available crews have been dispatched to attend to network faults and restore power as quickly as safely possible,” says GM WEL Services, George Pirie.
“However, the squalls of stormy weather and lightning do mean that our crews need to remain safe and pause work as necessary.
“We know that this is extremely frustrating for people and we'd like to thank our customers for their continued patience and assure them that we are doing everything we can to reconnect them as quickly as safely possible."
Please treat powerlines as live at all times. Remember down means danger - if you see a downed powerline stay well clear and call us immediately on 0800 800 935.
Beware of vegetation (e.g. hanging branches) caught in powerlines as this also poses a safety risk.
For updates including estimated restoration times please check our outages map here.