Transpower is apologising to power users in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti for a confusing message today, only a week after last week's rolling blackouts.
Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
A power station went off line near Lake Waikaremoana this morning, leading to a series of social media posts in the space of a short time with conflicting messages.
About 7.15am, Genesis Energy lost local power to its hydro scheme at the lake in northern Hawke's Bay.
Power was restored about 7.45am.
Transpower, which owns and operates the national power grid, posted on Facebook at 7.49am, saying: "Our sincere apologies to consumers in the Hawkes Bay [sic] - we have had an issue with local generation and had to ask [power lines companies] Unison and Eastland networks to reduce electricity use in the area. We are working hard to get you reconnected as soon as possible."
Twenty minutes later, it posted again.
"We understand your local generation is back online and we have instructed your local lines companies - Eastland and Unison to begin restoring load. Sorry for the inconvenience this morning."
Nearly half an hour later, they posted once again: "We now understand that neither Unison or Eastland needed to disconnect load for this event and used other mechanisms at their disposal (like hot water ripple control) to manage load down or supply by other means. So sorry for the initial worry caused."
This comes after last Monday, when the area was one of a few in the Central North Island that experienced rolling power outages, after electricity levels hit an all-time high.
Transpower general manager of operations Stephen Jay said the company posted on Facebook as it sought to be "proactive with consumers" in light of last week's events.
"A positive outcome was that neither lines company needed to disconnect consumers but were able to manage the situation through hot water control and drawing on electricity from other areas," he said in a statement.
Clark said Genesis was investigating what caused the loss of local power services.
He said this would take several days.
Last week, [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/448874/power-cuts-due-to-commercial-decisions-minister-megan-woods
Energy Minister Megan Woods pointed the finger at Genesis Energy] for not turning on one of its generators at Huntly.
Chief executive Mark England told Checkpoint the company was being scapegoated by the minister.