Whangārei District Council councillor Marie Olsen uses her cellphone after the this morning’s power cut plunged Te Iwitahi council chambers into near darkness.
Photo: Susan Botting / Local Democracy Reporting Northland

Northland Mayoral Forum chairperson Vince Cocurullo says the power must be on in Te Tai Tokerau by this evening.

Cocurullo said he did not want to see the region’s now four-hour old power cut become another Brynderwyns.

The Brynderwyns closure is costing Northland’s economy more than $2 million a day.

Cocurullo said Thursday’s power cut would also be having significant economic impacts for many.

“The power needs to be back up and running by this evening,” Cocurullo said.

The closure of State Highway One into Northland over the Brynderwyns dragged on. It was originally to be closed from 26 February to 27 March. But this was then extended before and is now scheduled to reopen on 26 June.

Cocurullo said Northland should not have to still be facing the untenable situation of only having one main trunk power line into the region.

Northland Mayoral Forum chairperson Vince Cocurullo.
Photo: Northern Advocate / Michael Cunningham

A second line was badly needed for back-up in situations such as today.

Northland’s almost 14,000 square kilometres is home to almost 200,000 people.

Cocurullo, who is also Whangārei mayor and Northland Civil Defence deputy chairperson, said the power needed to be on by 6pm so that the more than a third of the region’s population which was elderly could have ways of heating their homes, and more.

Northland Civil Defence ranks electricity failure as one of Te Tai Tokerau’s top ranked hazards, eighth out of 24 hazards in its regional plan.

Cocurullo said Northland’s local government leaders had long been lobbying for better roading and power provision.

The Northland Mayoral Forum represents the mayors of Far North District Council, Kaipara District Council and Whangārei District Council (WDC).

Cocurullo said the power outage would have widespread consequences.

“If you’re on fibre only, there won’t be any internet into your home.”

Almost total darkness hit Whangārei District Council’s community development committee meeting this morning.
Photo: Susan Botting / Local Democracy Reporting Northland

Cocurullo said battery back-ups for cell towers could operate for only a limited time once the power went out.

He said people should be looking out for each other.

Cocurullo urged Northlanders to take care around power lines and treat them as live at all times.

This morning’s power cut came just as WDC’s June community development committee meeting started.

The council meeting signed off more than $5m in community grants to two dozen community groups in the almost darkness.

Whangārei Museum and Heritage Trust was the biggest winner with $1.79m over three years, Creative Northland, $560,000, and Whangārei Quarry Gardens Trust, $345,000, received the biggest individual grants from the $5,148,681 in grants.

The meeting had been running for three minutes when the power went out, plunging WDC’s Te Iwitahi council chambers into darkness.

More than 400 people work in WDC’s $59m Te Iwitahi building, where the lift also stopped working but nobody was affected.

The council chamber’s lights, air conditioning and electronic sound system stopped at 11.03am.

Councillor Ken Couper finished the meeting with a prayer: “Guide us all safely home, especially with the power out.”

Councillor Carol Peters, who is also a Te Tai Tokerau climate change action leader, said the power outage facing Northland showed the importance of locally-produced power generation.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.