Oddly enough Ray,
It's not just Auckland that gets hit with power outages:
From today's Timaru Herald on-line:
Major power outage hits Timaru:Power has been restored to Timaru and surrounding areas after a fire at a substation caused a major power blackout to around 20,000 homes this morning.
The power cut affected an area from the Opihi River to the city's east, as far northwest as Cave and Cannington, including Pleasant Point, and as far south as Otaio, including Pareora and St Andrews.
Alpine energy said all affected customers should now have power again. If anyone is still without power, they are asked to cal (03) 687 4300 or 0800 661 177.
A statement from the company said it "apologised for any inconvenience" caused by the outage and added some hot water cylinders may still be without power.
"As electricity has been turned off for some time today, hot water will not be immediately available. We will be restoring hot water power gradually throughout the night."
It is understood the fire, at the Timaru substation on the Old North Road, started at around 5.15am.
There was a cable fault in the Transpower switch room which led to a small explosion.
Firefighters were at the scene just after 7am and the fire has since been put out.
A spokesperson for Timaru Hospital said the hospital had also been affected by the outage and had a generator running.
Some schools and kindergartens in the area had closed.
Traffic lights had also been knocked out throughout the area, with police directing traffic at intersections.
Alpine Energy is still asking people to reduce the amount of power they use.
Link:
Article at Timaru Herald