{"id":124659,"date":"2025-11-08T13:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/124659\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:01:19","slug":"far-north-businesses-call-for-compensation-after-second-major-power-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/124659\/","title":{"rendered":"Far North businesses call for compensation after second major power cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Energy is now urging people to conserve power for another week while the network is at reduced capacity, and the damaged equipment is repaired. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently running on our smallest transformer at Kaikohe, and Ng\u0101wh\u0101 generation is offline for planned annual maintenance, so we don\u2019t have our usual backup,\u201d chief executive Russell Shaw said. <\/p>\n

Chang Siam Thai Restaurant owner Mike Nunn said he had a \u201ccomplete loss of trade\u201d after having to close the Waipapa restaurant twice, losing dozens of bookings and takeaway orders. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s at least over $6000 of lost revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really frustrating; we should have a better system in place, so if there\u2019s a failure, then a back-up system comes on. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019ve been plunged into the dark ages again; it\u2019s almost a third-world country.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"CathayCathay Cinemas owner Ross Churchouse is worried about the reliability of the network following two power outages in less than a week.<\/p>\n

Cathay Cinemas owner Ross Churchouse said he lost \u201cseveral thousand dollars of turnover\u201d from 10 movie sessions that couldn\u2019t screen because of the outages. <\/p>\n

During the first power cut, last Friday, the power went out during the British and Irish Film Festival, \u201cdisappointing 50 or 60 people\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe rebooked them again last night and we got hit by a power cut again. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast night we lost six movie sessions, and the previous week we lost four. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got me worried about the reliability of the network \u2013 are we going to have this rolling through to the next six months? <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one in Northland can afford not to be operating and for us, evenings are our busiest time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Churchouse said businesses should be compensated. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice if they said \u2018hey we\u2019ll give you 10% off your next bill\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019d be a nice gesture.\u201d <\/p>\n

Last Friday, the power went out<\/a> about 3.40pm and disconnected the same 23,000 homes and businesses north of Hikurangi, south of Mang\u014dnui and across the width of the North Island. <\/p>\n

Initially, equipment failure at the Kaikohe substation was suspected, but it was later discovered the failure was caused by a tree that fell on to the 33kV line to Mt Pokaka. <\/p>\n

\"TopTop Energy chief executive Russell Shaw asked residents to conserve power while capacity is reduced while equipment is repaired, which may take a week.<\/p>\n

Kerikeri District Business Association (KKDBA) is calling for a stronger, more resilient power network for the Far North, along with \u201ca clear back-up plan that protects our community\u201d. <\/p>\n

KKDBA interim chairwoman Anika Whapshott said consistency and reliability of power supply were essential for business confidence. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing couldn\u2019t have been worse, particularly for hospitality operators, many of whom were hit during busy trading periods and have faced significant financial impacts as a result. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur local businesses can cope with a lot, but what they need most is reliability.\u201d <\/p>\n

Northland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leah McKerrow said the outages were \u201cvery disappointing and frustrating\u201d for businesses. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing for our retailers, particularly those in hospitality, because of the food situation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be keen to understand how this happened two weeks in a row, and start to think, is our infrastructure failing us?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheThe two power outages affected more than 23,000 households across the entire southern part of the district.<\/p>\n

Northland MP Grant McCallum said he\u2019d been in touch with Top Energy, and the company was \u201cjust as frustrated as I am\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cClearly it\u2019s a concern we\u2019ve had a couple of significant outages in a short space of time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be keeping in touch with Top Energy to make sure we get to the bottom of these issues.\u201d <\/p>\n

When asked whether customers would be compensated, Shaw said: \u201cWe appreciate this outage has been disruptive and frustrating, especially coming so soon after the earlier event. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage people to talk with their insurers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Top Energy urged medically dependent customers to \u201chave a back-up plan\u201d and call 111 if they found themselves at risk. <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top Energy is now urging people to conserve power for another week while the network is at reduced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,74187,10166,3043,5842,55138,334,3588,4510,7557,528,2082,296,3242,7494,661,111,43,139,529,69,34864,10112,8466,131,2044,686],"class_list":["post-124659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-ages","tag-businesses","tag-call","tag-calling","tag-chunk","tag-compensation","tag-cut","tag-dark","tag-district","tag-far","tag-for","tag-into","tag-large","tag-less","tag-major","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-plunged","tag-power","tag-second","tag-than","tag-time","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}