Northpower Electricity Supply Situation

Monday 28th July 2008 9.30am

Northpower Electricity Supply Situation

We had 100 field and support staff working long hours all weekend to clear faults. This combined with two helicopters that were utilised to find faults and speed up repairs, enabled us to get all but one main network line operational by Sunday Night.

Virtually all that remains now, is to repair customers own service lines that have significant damage such as broken wires and poles. We have all our staff now directed at fixing these customer lines. There are 297 customers in this situation. We hope that all or nearly all will be restored today.

We also ask any customers who still have no power to contact us so that we can provide assistance. We can now get to most customers that have been previously inaccessible.

At the peak of the storm on Saturday we had 11,000 customers without power. This is 21% of Northpower’s total. Most damage was caused by trees falling across lines.

We appreciate all the positive comments we have had from customers and also understand the distress that some customers have experienced.

ENDS

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