Aurora Energy has apologised to customers in the Upper Clutha who were without power a number of times in the past week.

Aurora Energy operations and network performance general manager Matt Settle said there were several unrelated faults that resulted in customers being affected by unplanned power outages at various times.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve had a number of outages in the same area over a short timeframe and apologies to our customers for the inconvenience we know this caused them,” Matt said.

“We are doing work in the area to upgrade the electricity network and late last week one of the main power lines that supplies the area had a planned outage to keep our contractors safe while they were replacing power poles,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the second line tripped and the team responded as quickly as possible to get power back on for our customers. The cause was not immediately obvious but was ultimately tracked down to a defective insulator that has now been replaced.”

Another outage happened earlier this week when electrical circuits were being reconfigured and the line tripped, following a new insulator being installed. 

“This event is being investigated as we believe our operational response was not optimal and outages could have been avoided,” Matt said.

On Wednesday (February 9) evening a fault with a transformer in Wānaka caused a power cut for a number of customers. Aurora Energy said this is still being investigated.

Aurora Energy has a five-year work programme to invest in upgrades to the electricity network in Central Otago, Queenstown Lakes and Dunedin, after a history of under-investment.

PHOTO: Wānaka App