Keeping Castlepoint powered during February's storm

A community generator proved its worth during recent storms that hit the lower North Island, keeping power flowing to the Wairarapa seaside settlement of Castlepoint. 
 
At the peak of the storm that hit overnight on 15-16 February, more than 25,000 properties lost power on Powerco’s electricity network – more than 8,000 of them in the Wairarapa region.  
 
Thanks to a community generator installed by Powerco that became operational last year, Castlepoint avoided a prolonged power outage which would have impacted the village in the past for potentially days. 
 
Castlepoint Residents and Ratepayers Association Chair, Chris Garland, says that apart from a few teething issues when it was initially installed, the emergency generator is now boosting the local community’s resilience.  
 
“The generator appears to be working well and has mitigated the inconvenience of long outages due to storm damage, such as we had last month,” Chris Garland says.  
 
“It is not widely known just how effective this facility has been, and we will be making our members more aware of the contribution that the generator is making in upcoming public meetings.” 
 
Following the mid-February storm, damage to the Powerco network was significant – the highest fault volumes and damage to the network since Cyclone Gabrielle – with the main cause of outages being trees down on lines, particularly through forestry blocks.  
 
The Castlepoint generator powered the Castlepoint township for almost three days until crews could gain access and repair damage to the single feeder power line supplying the settlement. 
 
Along with Castlepoint, Powerco has installed emergency generators in Riversdale Beach (Wairarapa), Himatangi Beach (Manawatū), Coromandel Township (Waikato) and Whangamōmona (Taranaki) communities.  
 
The generators are digitally connected to Powerco's Network Operations Centre in New Plymouth. There may be situations, however, when it would not be safe for the generators to be turned on remotely or manually. In the case of the Castlepoint generator, this would be if there was a network fault, such as a car hitting a power pole or lines down in Castlepoint township itself. The generator has been placed on the western outskirts of Castlepoint so that it can be used if the only line coming into Castlepoint has a fault (eg tree through line on the way to Castlepoint).    
 
During the February storm, the amount of damage to the power lines and poles on both sides of the Riversdale Beach and Himatangi Beach generators meant they couldn’t be used. Powerco field crews worked as quickly as they could to restore mains supply to those communities. 
 
Powerco General Manager Electricity Karen Frew says that power to the remote communities of Castlepoint, Riversdale Beach, Himatangi Beach, Coromandel and Whangamōmona is supplied by single lines (feeders), which means Powerco is unable to re-route power from another feeder to restore supply if there’s an outage. 
 
“With generation, there’s a resource ready to help power the community in the event of the electricity feed being unavailable. It also enables local communities to set up community hubs to supply essential services for people in the event of a natural disaster.  
 
“The isolated nature and difficult forestry block terrain, particularly for Castlepoint, has meant, at times, lengthy delays in supply restoration following storm events for our customers. This generation enables lifeline supply for the likes of wifi, phone charging, fridges, freezers and food preparation to continue for these communities when they need it most.”

Read more about what we are doing in the Tīnui and East Coast community here.