Households have been cautioned that without conserving electricity, they may encounter potential power outages on Friday. The national grid operator, Transpower, has indicated that there might be an insufficient supply of electricity between 7 am and 9 am due to an unseasonable cold spell and low wind power generation.
Transpower stated that it would collaborate with electricity lines companies across New Zealand to deactivate controllable loads like hot water systems tomorrow morning to alleviate demand. It assured that since hot water systems are routinely switched on and off during the day, the majority of people wouldn’t notice this adjustment.
However, if sufficient conservation efforts from lines companies, major industrial consumers, and households are not undertaken, it may not be adequate to sustain uninterrupted power supply everywhere. In such a scenario, Transpower may need to cooperate with lines companies to temporarily cut off power supply to certain areas across New Zealand until the electricity shortage is resolved, thus mitigating the risk of widespread and prolonged outages.
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To assist in alleviating the situation, Transpower advised households to switch off heaters and lights in unused rooms, postpone the use of appliances, and refrain from charging devices and cars. While acknowledging the forecast for a very cold morning, it recommended that people keep warm by heating only the rooms they are actively using and considering a slight reduction in temperature between 7 am and 9 am.
Transpower had issued a warning notice to the industry earlier on Thursday. Chantelle Bramley, Transpower’s chief executive general manager, informed Checkpoint that generators were undergoing scheduled maintenance ahead of winter, and the entire industry was collaborating to prevent power cuts.
Despite the challenges posed by the unseasonably cold weather, Bramley emphasized the collective efforts being made to manage the situation. While acknowledging that no power system can guarantee absolute supply, she highlighted the industry’s ability to manage supply shortages through collaborative action.
MetService has forecast plummeting temperatures overnight, with Christchurch expected to drop to -4 degrees Celsius. In a similar occurrence in 2021, nearly 34,000 households experienced power outages on one of the coldest nights of the year due to inadequate supplies to meet the surge in demand. As a result, Transpower was fined $150,000 by an industry panel for its involvement in the blackouts.
