PowerNet

Today is National Tradie Day, and we're giving a well-deserved shout-out to all tradies across New Zealand, and especially to our own PowerNet team.

Whether you're out in the field, on a worksite, or responding to faults and outages, often in challenging weather conditions, your dedication and hard work help keep the lights on and our communities safe.

Thank you for the skills, commitment, and can-do attitude you bring to the job.

Happy Te Wiki o te Reo Māori!
Why not give te reo a go and try out some of these words and phrases? Here's a little help with pronounciation:

pou - "poe"(a little bit like the sound of the 'o' in "go")
hiko - "hee-kaw" (like the sound at the start of the word caught)
raina - "rye-nah"
toa - "taw-ah"
kaimahi - "ky-mah-hee"

Remember to thank your linesman if you see them out fixing things or upgrading our network - "kia ora rawa atu" means thank you very much!

For residents in the Glenham, Mokoreta, Redan, Slopedown, Tahakopa Valley and Wyndham, some of you may be getting up this morning to no power. It's been off since the early hours and teams are working hard to find the fault, but it is proving a little elusive.

Unfortunately, it might be a cold breakfast, or you could crank up the barbecue.

We can't provide an accurate estimate of restoration until we find the issue, but rest assured, they are working on it.

https://powernet.co.nz/outages/

A PowerNet legend is putting his beard on the line for a great cause.
Ray King is one of our field staff, but he’s more than that. He's one of those familiar faces who's been helping keep the lights on across our communities for years, and around here he's a bit of a legend. He's also been sporting the same beard since 2007.

Now, for a cause that's very close to his heart, Ray has agreed to shave it off if we can raise at least $5,000 for Heart Kids NZ.

Heart Kids NZ has provided invaluable support to Ray's granddaughter and family as she lives with a heart condition. This fundraiser is Ray's way of giving back and helping ensure other families receive the same support when they need it most.

So, if you've ever wondered what Ray looks like without a beard, now is your chance to find out.

Help us reach the $5,000 goal and support the incredible work of Heart Kids NZ by:

• Texting POWERNET to 2427 to make an instant donation, or
• Donating online: https://heroesforheartkids.org.nz/power-net-team

Every donation makes a difference. Every dollar gets us one step closer to seeing Ray clean-shaven for the first time in nearly 20 years. Money raised through this fundraiser will be tagged for use by Heart Kids Southland . Thank you for supporting this great cause. ❤️

Waikiwi/Grasmere residents - We need to carry out urgent repairs to a transformer in Bay Road, Invercargill. Unfortunately, this means we need to turn your power off this evening.

The outage will affect customers on Bay Road between North Road and Ross Street, as well as those on North Road between Bay Road and Dudley Street.

Power will be turned off at 7pm tonight and should be back on within three hours - all going well.

We apologise for the short notice, but the repair needs to be done tonight. Thank you for your patience.

Makarewa residents – Please be aware of traffic management in place on Flora Road East, Helena Road and Orion Road this Tuesday (15th) and Wednesday (16th) between 8am and 4.30pm. Roads will be down to one lane in places, so take care and allow extra time for travel.

This is necessary to keep our crews safe while we begin work to relocate a line off private property and along Helena Road. We will also be undergrounding part of a line on Flora Road East.

Some of you already have a planned power outage for 16th September, which is to allow vegetation management to take place. We’re making the most of this outage to install some new poles around Flora Road East, Helena Road and Orion Road. This should enable us to reduce future outages when we carry out the undergrounding work.

To find out more about this work visit https://powernet.co.nz/current-projects/other-projects/

Thanks for your patience.

Well, it wouldn't be the weekend without a wind watch.

MetService have issued a wind watch for Saturday, so it's time to get prepared again. We expect spring is going to be a continuation of the winds we've had so check your emergency kits and preparedness.

We'll be keeping an eye on the weather and our teams are ready to respond. If you find yourself without power, call us on 0800 808 587.

Well... that's been quite the 48 hours, Southland & Otago! 😅🌬️⛈️🌧️☀️
Wind, rain, hail, lightning, sunshine — sometimes seemingly all at once.

This photo was taken from our Invercargill office carpark earlier this afternoon, and pretty much sums it up: deep, dark clouds in one direction, blue sky and sunshine in the other. Mother Nature really can’t seem to make up her mind!

It’s been a huge couple of days for our crews, who’ve been out in some fairly wild conditions getting the lights (and heaters!) back on across Southland, Clutha and Otago.

A big thank you to our communities for your patience, your kind words, and for bearing with us while we worked through it all. 💙
For those of you still waiting for power to be restored, we're working on it!

Here’s hoping September brings us something a little more boring… 🤞😂

Mother Nature is having a great time, throwing everything at us!

In good news, our crews have made solid progress restoring power from the weekend (and today's) weather. We’re still working through a small number of individual faults but hope to have them restored today.

In not-so-good news, we’re aware of some vulnerabilities with our network in Western Southland, particularly affecting Longwoods, Colac Bay, and Orepuki. Several faults have occurred here and customers have had power restored only for it to go off again. Please be prepared for further outages over the next few days.

We’ve also been advised of an outage affecting northern Southland from Parawa to Kingston. We believe it could be due to snow but a field team member is on their way to investigate this now.

It’s been a rough few weeks, with the weather keeping us all on our toes! Predictions are for an unsettled spring. We’ll be doing everything we can to keep the power on but encourage you to make sure you are prepared for all possibilities. A few minutes preparing now could make things a lot easier if bad weather strikes.
Visit our website for top tips on preparing for outages - www.powernet.co.nz/outages

They say sometimes it gets worse before it gets better - and that was certainly the case last night, huh Southland and Otago!? 💨⚡️🌩️☔

We're told winds are supposed to ease around lunchtime today.

We did get power restored to most of you last night, but there have been a few more additional outages today, and this weather certainly makes the mahi extra unpleasant for our crews!

There are also lots of individual faults (only one or two properties affected), which can take us a little bit of time to find and identify the cause so that we can restore your power. These individual faults won't always show on our outage map - if you're unsure about whether we know about it - give us a call on 0800 808 587.

We'll post an update a little later today - hopefully after the winds drop a bit!