Repeated power outages spark Hanmer frustration
One of Canterbury’s leading tourism destinations spent almost an entire day without power – the 22nd outage in just a year.
More than 1700 MainPower customers in Hanmer Springs lost power just after 8am yesterday, leaving cafes closed, visitor dollars unspent and people packing up and going home early.
The number of people affected is likely much higher, with an estimated 4000 to 5000 visitors spending the weekend in the North Canterbury town.
One business reported $4000 of lost sales after losing pies, muffins and other food staff had cooked for the day.
Power was eventually restored at 5.45pm after a fault was repaired, MainPower said.
The outage came just days after about 100 people attended a community meeting with representatives from the lines company to discuss the ongoing problem.
Local councillor Tom Davies said the meeting went well, and that residents were interested, respectful and walked away feeling satisfied with the answers given.
But Davies said yesterday’s outage was the “icing on the cake” for many.
“If we take [MainPower] at their word, then these are very very unfortunate accidents.
“But a lot of the community are cynical and believe it’s the system overworking,” he said.
Before yesterday’s failure, of the 21 outages that occurred in the past 12 months, nine were planned and 12 unplanned, the meeting was told.
Birds and possums interfering with the network were the most common reasons for outages, followed by the weather. One incident was caused by a system fault and one by undergrowth.
Yesterday’s outage, the 22nd, was caused by wildlife getting into a high-voltage circuit breaker at the Culverden substation, MainPower said on its website.
Davies said there was a lot of anger in the community when the power was first switched off, but people quickly turned to checking on their neighbours and vulnerable community members. He said people organised barbecues and drinks, and someone had organised a mini-golf competition.
While the lack of power might have been an excuse for a particularly slow Sunday for some, it was bad news for businesses owners who were looking forward to a busy day of trading.
Alice Stielow, who owns FashionWorks and LifeStyles, was forced to close both shops early. “As a business owner it’s pretty disappointing and it costs us a lot of money ... Unless you’ve got a generator, it does grind everyone to a halt,” she said.
Nearby, The Log Cabin cafe and dairy faced a similar dilemma.
“We couldn’t serve coffee or breakfast to our customers, so a lot of tourists and a lot of our customers had to turn away,” owner Vish Soma said.
After 10 hours without power, Soma feared he had lost $4000 in sales, almost two-thirds of his usual Sunday takings.
Soma was frustrated with the lack of communication from MainPower, and was tired of the constant fear of power outages threatening his business.
“It’s happened many times … It is taking ages for them to fix it and restore the power, which is causing the frustration,” he said.
An email summary of Wednesday’s meeting, sent to members of the community and seen by The Press, explained why the power cuts had been going on for longer than usual.
Normally, MainPower can send three large shocks down the lines to remove the fault-causing issue, like wildlife or branches, it read.
However, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) has asked the company not to take such action because of the current fire risk, which is high in the Hanmer area.
This means technicians need to manually assess the lines, then find and fix the issue.
MainPower, which is owned by a trust on behalf of communities in North Canterbury and delivers electricity to over 42,000 homes and businesses, did not respond to a question about this process.
“We apologise for any inconvenience as a result of this unforeseen loss of power,” a spokesperson said.
A few businesses have adapted to the unreliable power source, buying generators or battery packs for their eftpos machines. The pools and spa complex was able to open because it has back-up power.
Fire and Ice cafe and restaurant was another of the few places able to stay open. Staff have become used to picking up the extra work, and Sunday was no different.
“It’s been crazy busy all day,” said a manager, who did not want to be named.
“We’ve had a generator for about two years, we’re used to it. When the power goes we know we’re going to get busy.”
While making it through yesterday was most people’s immediate concern, businesses are also worried about finding a timely solution.
Andrew Anisimov, owner of Chalets Motel on Jacks Pass Rd, said he had laundry piling up.
“We are a motel, we have people that stay here and people can’t do anything. We can’t even do laundry,” he said.
He said with at least one outage a month, the business was struggling to cope and he was nervous about the future.
“What will it be like in winter? We are worried about that.”