Possum to blame for power woes?

Residents of the South Taranaki town of Patea¯ are frustrated with the number of unexpected cuts to the town’s power supply, with residents demanding answers from electricity supplier Powerco.

Powerco confirmed to the Chronicle yesterday that there had been 11 outages over the last 14 days, with the cause ranging from high winds to blown fuses and equipment failure.

It did not say how many customers each outage affected, but said it ranged from “a single customer through to two outages impacting 1298 customers each”.

The largest power cut affected 1298 customers on Saturday, March 6, when equipment at the Livingstone substation failed.

Powerco said investigations to determine the cause of the outage were ongoing, but it was believed a rogue possum sparked the failure. The equipment had been replaced and testing was under way.

Four days later, the same 1298 customers lost power right on dinner time after “a piece of equipment on a pole failed”, Powerco said.

On social media this week, posts complaining about the number of outages garnered hundreds of comments from annoyed residents, with reports that the town grappled with multiple unexplained power cuts over the last two weeks. “The impact on families with young babies and the elderly and those with severe illnesses is just unacceptable,” one said.

Whanganui MP Steph Lewis said some constituents had contacted her regarding the outages. “It’s on my to-do list to get some answers.”

Powerco said it was committed to ensuring a reliable power supply for the town.