Hāwea Community Association (HCA) chair Cherilyn Walthew says she had a “positive” meeting with Aurora Energy chief executive Richard Fletcher last week.

The meeting followed a number of recent power outages, including two on June 30, which together left thousands of people in Hāwea and Makarora without power - some for many hours.

Cherilyn said she had been under the impression there were capacity issues in Hāwea, but she was pleased to learn that wasn’t the case; instead, she learned configuration was the issue.

“The configuration isn’t actually ideal for where we are at, but there is long-term planning around that,” Cherilyn said.

This planning includes transitioning the Hāwea network from what was initially planned as a rural area to a semi-urban network.

"It's nice to know [Aurora]....know what they need to do to make [the local network] more resilient,” she said. 

“They’re very aware the issues are actually there.”

Cherilyn said she had also wanted to discuss the “actual pain points” and whether something could be done when the power does go out for an extended period like it did at the end of June.

“After an hour of a power outage the house cools dramatically so there needs to be somewhere to go when it's cold,” she said. “We asked them to have a look at how to resolve that.”

“Could there be an emergency set up that could go into play, a warm place for people to go, somewhere they can get food?”

She said she had also highlighted the need to “communicate with the community on what the issues are” and said she and Richard had discussed potentially co-hosting an event in Hāwea later in the year.

Richard confirmed a possible meeting in October or November had been discussed and said Aurora Energy was keen to build a closer relationship with the community to share its plans and better understand local needs.

“As an organisation, we’re keen to meet with communities to hear any feedback or concerns they may have and to work with them to address any issues,” he said.

Cherilyn said while “you can’t resolve every issue in a single meeting” it had been a “positive meeting” with “some good honest facts in terms of where we are at and what we want to achieve”.

PHOTO: Wānaka App