Auckland power outages

22 comments on “Auckland power outages ”

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1. Kiwiri 1

   6 October 2014 at 2:14 pm

   Key will very definitely be making the most out of this to have a pretend reason for putting up power prices!

   p.s. some of us should consider helping to crowdsource funding for a generator to keep TS servers running!
   • Tom Gould 1.1

     6 October 2014 at 2:53 pm

     I thought one of their excuses for trebling power prices was to pay for the massive investment in the power grid? Maybe it just went into super salaries and super profits after all?
     • lprent 1.1.1

       6 October 2014 at 8:29 pm

       That was the national grid. This is the local connection where the national grid transfers into the local grid.

       That is to say from Transpower to Vector.
   • lprent 1.2

     6 October 2014 at 3:13 pm

     Don’t worry about that.

     There is meant to be a fallback to a warm standby Sydney AWS server cluster that pops up with a few minutes delay. However I haven’t quite got that working properly yet. Everything is working on that apart from the actual startup.

     Works fine on a test system, just doesn’t work well on the actual system.
2. jaymam 2

   6 October 2014 at 5:41 pm

   I’d lke to know wny landline telephones in areas with power cuts don’t get a dial tone. There are elderly people who can’t communicate with friends and relatives.
   How hard is it to have a generator in the telephone exchanges? I have a generator just so I can watch TV and get on the Net, just because I can.
   • tc 2.1

     6 October 2014 at 8:40 pm

     It’s all VoIP now so no power no phone, there are gennies in most large exchanges but they supply the main network backhaul gear and cell towers which is a historical backup regime.
     • Colonial Viper 2.1.1

       7 October 2014 at 1:55 am

       This fragility in systems is going to fuck us all.
       • tc 2.1.1.1

         8 October 2014 at 7:13 am

         Fragility no, choice yes. Networks, IT and utilities, lack fundamental base investment to prevent such issues. Do that over a decade and make it someone elses problem.

         watercare in akl has underinvested billions over the last few decades, business like chorus arrive into existence with a network in similar state from telecom days.
   • ghostwhowalksnz 2.2

     7 October 2014 at 2:47 pm

     Essentially you are all wrong.

     Telephone land line system has its own low voltage power supply, it comes down the lines with voice/data. You should be getting a dial tone, as local exchanges have battery power.
     Its not VOIP now, thats for the future ( and wont be its own power supply and have to plug the phone into a power point.)

     Fragility is nothing new. And if we in Auckland are hit by a major cyclone in jan/Feb it will be like Christchurch for 3 months. Roads, power, water, sewerage will all be out in places like Waitakeres. Last hit was about 1936
3. coaster 3

   6 October 2014 at 7:25 pm

   The next time the south island looses power, and looses it for huge amounts of time, we expect similar coverage by the media.

   on the same day aswell, not 2 days later.

   harden up auckland.
   • ghostwhowalksnz 3.1

     7 October 2014 at 2:50 pm

     What does this mean other than a typical whiny Christchurch comment.

     We had their wind storm outages covered here. Of course we had our own some 8 years ago.
     Oh 50 people lose power is NOT news. 50,000 is
4. kiwisaver 4

   6 October 2014 at 7:34 pm

   Privatising the old power boards has led to low or no maintenance done for years. Also, experienced workers being replaced by overseas, lower-paid ones and shoddy workmanship.. Profit motive is the driver, not building a robust network for the future.
   • tc 4.1

     6 October 2014 at 8:37 pm

     The issue here is one of demarcation with basically nobody coming in over the top and telling transpower and vector to get their shit together and upgrade, rectify, redesign and rebuild to ensure supply integrity. Penrose isnt the only point of network weakness.

     With a single power entity there would be nobody to shift blame to so it’s another example of breaking and making less efficient what use to work just fine …..NZED.

     The network and maintenance is the result of the Bradford reforms and a vacuous commerce commission more interested in obsure data as it lacks the skills to investigate actual network investment so don’t expect anything to change.
5. RedBaronCV 5

   6 October 2014 at 8:47 pm

   And some body ion the herald suggesting people work from home today. Most would need power for that would they not. And yes time to renationalise the linmes companies and power grids. We pay and the lot goes off shore.
   • karol 5.1

     6 October 2014 at 8:53 pm

     It probably would be good advice for people who work in the areas where their are outages, but live in another area – only some parts of Auckland have no power. It’s all been fine out here in West Auckland – power as usual.
   • ghostwhowalksnz 5.2

     7 October 2014 at 2:40 pm

     Rubbish.

     Transpower is totally state owned. Vector is 75% owned by customers
6. RedBaronCV 6

   6 October 2014 at 8:51 pm

   Appeares to be hitting the higher income suburbs the hardest.
   • Murray Olsen 6.1

     7 October 2014 at 1:36 am

     It’s God’s wrath at putting the godless and incestuous ACT in Parliament. Those are exactly the people who wanted everything broken up and privatised, so let them pay private contractors to restore power to houses in Remmers. Yeah, I know. Everyone else will end up paying for it.
7. fambo 7

   7 October 2014 at 9:12 am

   I recommend getting a copy of the September edition of Rolling Stone and reading the article New Hope for the Climate by Al Gore. He points out that solar power is revolutionising power generation around the world and is heading in the same direction as cell phones, especially in third world countries where centralised power systems are going to be simply bypassed. However, in first world countries where we do have centralised power systems based around large power generators like dams, coal fired energy etc, the corporates that own these are under threat as people quickly move to decentralised solar systems. In fact, such power companies are in danger of rapidly losing their capital value. This is why in the United States, for example, they are pressuring politicians to put huge taxes on people who install solar power.

   So what does this mean for New Zealand. Most likely that vested interests here will not be wanting to encourage solar power. But another point relates to the fact that around half of New Zealanders will never be able to afford to buy their home. Those who own their home and can afford solar power will get it. This means those who rent and/or can’t afford solar power will remain reliant on the big energy companies. Because the number of customers will be fewer, they will be charged by these companies even more for their power. This will become another source of inequality in New Zealand.
   • karol 7.1

     7 October 2014 at 9:31 am

     I was quite surprised that students in Dunedin’s “worst student flat” as on Campbell Live” managed to transform their flat. The transformation included solar panels on the roof. the reckon they save money. The panels don’t power their flat, but they feed the grid and it offsets their power bill, which results in a deduction to their monthly bill.

     Don’t know how the students managed to get those panels. (it’s at about 3.30 mins into the video)
   • ghostwhowalksnz 7.2

     7 October 2014 at 2:39 pm

     Solar is not very useful at night.

     Unless you have ‘centralised’ system able to supply large amounts of power during cold cloudy days/nights you may as well be living in stone age
   • Colonial Rawshark 7.3

     8 October 2014 at 9:05 am

     Best to save solar for solar thermal – using it to heat your hot water and home – not photovoltaic. Should save around 25% of your power bill.

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