How often does your electricity fail?

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DrCheese

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Topic # 113987 4-Feb-2013 02:21

Just got woken up at 2am by my uninterruptible power supply beeping furiously, meaning yet another electricity failure. I've always believed that the internet is supposed to be more flakey than the electricity supply, but apparently the reverse is true in this part of Dunedin. Just out of curiosity, how often do folks in NZ get a power blackout?

DrCheese

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Reply # 755292 4-Feb-2013 02:37

I'd say on average I see 2-4 a year, That is here in Auckland and typically small area outages.

Ramjet007

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Reply # 755295 4-Feb-2013 05:43

Might see 1 a year in AKL (normally some fool runs into a power poll) and a couple of brownouts.

RunningMan

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Reply # 755298 4-Feb-2013 06:13

There were a few over night in Auckland too.

http://vector.co.nz/outages/current-outages

timmmay

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Reply # 755319 4-Feb-2013 07:47

Wellington suburbs, I guess a 2-4 per year, but maybe none some years. There's the occasional one when everyone turns their heat pumps on, plus short random ones.

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Goosey

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Reply # 755328 4-Feb-2013 08:20

Substation blow outs, heavy winds, car crashes, contractors digging up cables and earthquakes..... and the power still seems very reliable down here in ChCh !

TinyTim

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Reply # 755331 4-Feb-2013 08:24

Can't remember the last time we had a power cut. Many years. Inner suburbs, Wellington.

Hammerer

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Reply # 755335 4-Feb-2013 08:32

TinyTim: Can't remember the last time we had a power cut.

Ditto. Perhaps two in the last five years: lightening strike on substation + planned maintenance to replace local transformer.

Edit: Am in Lower Hutt.

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Dairyxox

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Reply # 755372 4-Feb-2013 09:42

I'm in Tauranga and the power normally goes out about 3 times a year on average.

Last year might have been like 4-5 times. Normally all the outages happen over a couple of weeks.

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Reply # 755391 4-Feb-2013 09:56

Think Ive only had 1 outage (very short) in the 18 months Ive been on the Whangaparaoa Peninisula...

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old3eyes

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Reply # 755402 4-Feb-2013 10:04

Can't remember the last time in Pt Chev in Auckland (2.5 years) but when I was in Papatoetoe every time it rained and someone took out the power pole on the corner which was about 5 times a year until the council fixed the road then it never happened again...

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geek4me

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Reply # 755403 4-Feb-2013 10:04

From none to 1 or 2 a year in Upper Hutt usually car crashes are the cause. Once someone came around at night and turned off our power and our neighbours power at the outside meter boxes our UPS woke us up. Power company came out - not too happy, but did not charge for the call out.

Before they came out, they told me to check the inside fuse box which was all fine, they said nothing about checking the outside box! Lesson learned - check the outside box if others in the street still have power. Not sure if one is allowed to modify the meter box door to add a lock.

Behodar

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Reply # 755405 4-Feb-2013 10:05

Like the others, I'd say 2-3 times per year (Whakatane). The Internet is definitely more flaky; for example I had no connection this morning (although it was back up by about 7:45).

robjg63

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Reply # 755420 4-Feb-2013 10:23

Seem to get more outages in central Auckland than we probably should.
Probably goes out 2 or 3 times a year.
I think in part due to the old overhead wiring.

Had a couple of momentary flickers on Saturday evening - Mt Eden area - around 10pm and sometime later.
Knocked the PCs over and made the lights flash.

A few years ago (5?) there was a bit of bad weather - not too dramatic - anyway - heard what sounded like a wheelie bin bouncing down the street - wind wasnt that bad - and it went on for a while. I went out and had a look up and down the street and saw a bunch of people looking at a very large transformer up a pole around 10 houses away. It was smoking and banging like fireworks. It was then that I noticed that the insulation on the wires down the street was smoking and dripping off the wiring.
I very quickly raced back inside and switched EVERYTHING off. All the appliances etc were actually running quite happily and nothing got damaged. Dont know how that one didnt cause a lot of problems.
Also had issues with poles breaking and wires stretching.

Wish they would underground our power.

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nickb800

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Reply # 755424 4-Feb-2013 10:27

I think it makes a big difference whether the network is overhead or underground in your area - common causes like car vs pole, tree vs pole only affect overground networks.

Much of Christchurch is underground (except the Transpower pylons which are pretty resilient) so I've found the supply to be super reliable, only going out for the major earthquakes and once for planned maintenance in the 4 years I've been here.

Contrast that to Kapiti, which is mostly overhead, and we would see several outages per year mostly due to storms

DrCheese

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Reply # 755464 4-Feb-2013 11:32

Just checked with my retailer electricity supplier, PowerShop. There have been 20 outages in the last three years in my part of Dunedin, so about 6-7 per year. Contrast this with my internet service provider where I"m guessing there have been at least four outages in the last year, mostly due to planned upgrades or faults upstream.

DrCheese

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