Infrastructure age blamed for outages

AGEING infrastructure has been blamed for unscheduled power cuts across the Central Otago region.

Aurora Energy general manager network operations and network performance Matt Settle said because of the ageing infrastructure, the frequency of power outages has risen despite work to address dropouts.

Aurora Energy uses three grades to assess infrastructure maintenance: fault (urgent), rapid response (90 days), and planned (annual routine checks).

When asked about recent power outages in Omakau and Clyde, Mr Settle said Aurora was working on the issue.

‘‘We’re working hard to ensure that reliability in the area is stabilised and improved through a number of major investments. This includes a new substation that will be up and running in the next 912 months.’’

Mr Settle said other work planned included a Lauder Flat backup supply, a reconfiguration of reclosers (automatic and remotely operable switches) and a voltage regulator on Chesterman Rd.

Regarding costs incurred by businesses due to power outages, Mr Settle said it was their responsibility to have contingencies in place, as Aurora Energy worked to the Commerce Commission’s targets that were relative to property and not individual businesses.

Aurora Energy referred customers to their website regarding outages, and encouraged them to use their faults line, open all the time, if they experienced an unscheduled outage.

At the end of the month Aurora Energy will be holding community meetings to tell customers about work in their area.

Meetings will be Alexandra, Wanaka, Queenstown and Dunedin.