close
MENU
6 mins to read

Vector: 1500 Auckland properties still without power after Tuesday night's storm

Outage map back PLUS: The latest from Chorus.

Mon, 16 Apr 2018

UPDATE Monday 6am: Vector says the approximate number of those homes or businesses still without power and/or hot water due to the storm is between 500 to 1500 but will continue to fluctuate due to weather conditions and more trees falling, which is causing new or additional damage.

The lines company says feeds to all suburbs are now repaired, with outages down to individual homes.

UPDATE / Sunday 7am: Some 3000 (or 1.5%) of the 180,000 homes and businesses that lost power during Tuesday night's storm are still without power, Vector says.

The lines company is now dealing with the remaining isolated faults scattered around Auckland, and on hot water faults. 

Its outage map is now back online and accurate.

Vector says crews are still being rostered around the clock, with extra supporting being brought in from out of town.

The company says the storm damage is the worst seen in "decades" and that it has had to "manage" more than 1000 trees.

UPDATE / Saturday 8am: For around 5% of Auckland properties hit by Tuesday night's storm, the power outage grinds on.

"Around 9000 customers remain without power heading into the weekend. Work to repair individual faults, which includes the restoration of some hot water pilot lights, will continue over the weekend, but will likely take us well into next week," the company's latest update says.

"We understand this is going to be a big disappointment to those customers affected and we are deeply sorry. All we can do is reiterate that we continue to have out-of-town field crews on to bolster our own crews and we are working around the clock to restore power as fast as possible. 

"In areas where the lack of electricity is also affecting access to running water or other essential services, we are working with Civil Defence to ensure basic living needs can be met."

The lines company says its outage map is now back online. It faced criticism earlier in the week as the web and mobile app versions of the map first did not load then (by Vector's own admission) did not show accurate information.

On social media, tempers are starting to fray:

UPDATE / Friday 3pm: Vector says 11,000 Auckland homes and businesses are without power this afternoon, three days after Tuesday night's storm that took out electricity to around 180,000 properties.

The lines company says after critical infrastructure is addressed, "Our next priority is the pockets of individual homes still without power due to failures on the low voltage network."

It adds, "This work, and the restoration of hot water pilot lines, will take us well into next week."

A mid-morning update from Chorus said 65 broadband cabinets are still offline following the storm. There are about 6000 customers affected. Extra technicians will work through the weekend, the company says.

See chorus.co.nz/outages for broadband blackout locations.

UPDATE / Friday 7am: Vector says 17,000 Auckland homes and businesses are without power this morning, three days after Tuesday night's storm that took out electricity to around 180,000 properties.The lines company estimates it will have nearly all power restored by the end of today.

Separately, Chorus says around 11,000 Auckland properties still without broadband (meaning its original estimate of 6000, see below, was a bit low-ball).

More wet and wild weather forecast for tonight.

About 100 Chorus roadside cabinets are without service around the region. Spokesman Nathan Beaumont says the majority of issues have been caused by power outages rather than direct storm damage to Chorus' network.

See chorus.co.nz/outages for broadband blackout locations.

UPDATE / Thurs 11am: Vector says around 41,000 properties remain without power.

The lines company continues to say it will be "several days" until all are restored.

Auckland Transport warns that lights are still out in parts of the city following the Tuesday night storm.

UPDATE / Wed 5pm: Vector's latest update says, "We have so far restored over 90,000 customers but there are many more to go. In some instances it could be days before power is fully restored to all customers."

There are still 91,000 homes and businesses without power after last night's storm.

The company is prioritising restoring power to critical infrastrcuture such as cell phone towers and schools.

It also apologises that, its website and app are still not displaying up-to-date outage information

EARLIER / Wed 9am: Vector's prediction that many Aucklanders could be without power for days has understandably hogged headlines.

But the city also faces multiple mobile network and landline broadband problems after last night's storm.

Spark spokeswoman Ellie Cross says her company's mobile network has not sustained any physical damage as a result of the storm.

"However, due to power outages caused by the severe weather overnight, 50 Spark cellphone towers around the country are offline, and a number of others are running on battery power. Where possible, we’re deploying generators to restore power to some cellphone towers this morning," she says.

"As the majority of the affected cellphone towers are in the greater Auckland area, customers may still receive some mobile coverage from other cellphone towers in their area. However, customers may experience slower than usual mobile data connections as the load increases on the remaining towers."

Spark has made its wi-fi network free for Auckland as the city deals with storm damage.

No password is required. A wi-fi hotspot locator is here.

Spark's outage tracker is here.

Chorus
Chorus (the wholesale/network provider of most landline broadband) was still in the process of compiling a storm report when contacted by NBR.

However, the outage map on its website shows a blizzard of copper and fibre line faults around Auckland and New Plymouth, plus a handful of others around the country.

If it follows the usual storm pattern, then the fortunes of Chorus' roadside cabinets will be tied to those of lines companies. [UPDATE: Chorus says around 6000 homes and businesses are without power in Auckland and Taranaki, and confirms most issues are power-related.]

Vodafone
A Vodafone spokeswoman says, "There are a number of sites down throughout the wider Auckland area. However, in many cases customers will be receiving service from surrounding sites. Generators are being distributed by technicians to the Mangere Bridge and Onehunga areas where customers may have seen some degraded cellphone coverage.

"The team is hard at work getting all our sites back up and running, and expect to see many come back online throughout the course of this morning."

Vodafone's outages map is here.

2degrees
"We have no reports of damage but obviously power is an issue," says acting corporate comms head Paul Brislen.

"We have a number of sites across the Auckland region that are either running on battery power or are down completely as a result of the storm. Predominantly these are in the west of the city and our technicians are working with both fibre network providers and electricity providers to bring these back up as quickly as possible."

Service status details are here.

As with Spark and Vodafone, 2degrees is largely reliant on Chorus for its landline service. Mr Brislen says a "handful" of landline customers are affected at this point.

© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Vector: 1500 Auckland properties still without power after Tuesday night's storm
74405