A series of power outages in the Upper Clutha over the past couple of weeks has left some residents frustrated - and raised fresh questions about whether customers should be compensated after unplanned outages.

A major outage on the evening of Monday June 30 left more than 2,000 people in Hāwea and Makarora without power for almost three hours. Later that night, a second outage (due to a powerline near the road on Domain Road) saw some residents without power until after midnight.

Then this Monday (July 7) another unplanned outage occurred in Wānaka and Albert Town, leaving around 1,200 customers without power for up to 5.5 hours during the day.

Resident Jessie Byrne said the outages aren’t good enough - particularly given there is no longer any compensation available to customers for unplanned power cuts.

Jessie said she discovered the credit had been removed when she and others approached Aurora Energy after the recent outages.

“Power outages are becoming a frustratingly regular occurrence in our area, and the removal of this credit - without [a] clear community mandate - raises questions about accountability,” she said.

Aurora Energy confirmed the change, with general manager customer and commercial services Mark Pratt saying its Customer Charter was updated in August following a public consultation in November 2023.

“The new charter no longer includes a service level for compensating customers if power is not restored after an unplanned power outage within set timeframes,” Mark said.

However, the company has doubled the charter credit for customers who aren’t properly notified of planned outages, from $20 to $40.

Mark said the consultation was widely advertised in print, digital, radio, and local apps, and that the majority of those who engaged supported the changes.

He noted that Aurora Energy ranks relatively well for unplanned outage frequency, sitting between fourth and eleventh out of 29 national lines companies - one of the reasons cited for removing the unplanned outage credit.

But Jessie believes the consultation wasn’t transparent enough. “At a minimum, I’d like to see greater transparency from Aurora, starting with the public release of submission numbers from the 2023 consultation,” she said.

“I don’t think anyone expects perfection - power outages happen,” Jessie said. “But when they do, people want to know someone is accountable, and that their experience matters.”

Aurora Energy told the Wānaka App it would get back to Jessie, and others, regarding consultation numbers “in due course”.

“However we are confident our consultation process was robust and provided opportunities for people to give us their feedback on the proposed changes.”

The company says it has several projects underway to improve network reliability in the Upper Clutha.

Over the past five years, the company has focused on replacing and upgrading ageing infrastructure. Longer-term, it plans to address network constraints and respond to population growth, economic development and decarbonisation.

“The network is sufficient for current demand, but significant investment will be needed to meet the community’s needs through to 2050 and beyond,” Aurora Energy future network and operations general manager Matt Settle told the Wānaka App.

A Regional Electricity Development Plan for the area is expected to be released later this year, with more details about future plans.

Aurora Energy said it had also offered to meet with the Hāwea community in the coming months to discuss plans to strengthen the electricity network in the area.

PHOTO: Supplied

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