Originally Posted by RODALCO
It was on the Tuesday 0700hrs morning radio news, and I was aware of it.
The media was talking about an 11kV fault but to affect so many customers it would be more likely a 33 or 66kV fault ??

Did it affect Ashburton at all ?!

Gidday Ray,
No it didn't affect AshVegas, but I've been wiring a dairy shed down on the other side of Timaru, I was wasn't aware of what had happened until I turned up at work down there and the farmer told me what had happened.

I was talking to a guy that works for NetCon down there and he said it was the secondary side of a 66/33kV tranny that all of a sudden decided to go belly up.

Quote
What's all this about restoring hot water power. Is there a separate feed just for hot water cylinders in NZ? Is it at a different rate?

It isn't a totally seperate feed for the hot water, but for it to work, the controls have to be energised.
Having an electricity supply to run the element also helps too.

New Zealand uses what is known as Ripple Control, where control tones are sent down the mains wires to activate and de-activate a relay in the customers meter box.

These control tones are around 1100-1200Hz and are traditionally sent out at 2300Hrs (energisation) and 0700 (de-energisation).

This system is called the Night-Rate supply and is (slightly) cheaper than the day rate electricity.

It also requires a second meter in your meter box.

Here is a pic of the meter box from the house I used to live in a while back:

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]

The meter on the left is the General Supply meter, in the middle is the Ripple Relay and on the right is the Night Rate meter.