Major power pole renewal programme for Akaroa

27 January 2022 at 3:30 pm

More than one hundred power poles from Duvauchelle to Akaroa are about to be refurbished or replaced, in a major upgrade of the 6.6km line delivering power to the township.

Steve Macdonald, Orion General Manager Electricity Network says this planned work on the 115 power poles, many of which are coming to the end of their serviceable life, will ensure the future reliability of the network.

“We’re conscious there is only one line delivering power to the town.

“Renewing this line of poles in planned, controlled conditions means we can do the work more efficiently, with less disruption to the community while the project is underway.

“If one of these older poles comes down in a storm, it could take others with it. Repairs in emergency response conditions could take much longer.”

Orion is bringing in crews from three different contractors to work simultaneously and will use a fleet of generators where possible to keep power outages to a minimum while crews co-ordinate to complete the project.

The project starts on 15 February and will take four weeks, finishing around 17 March 2022. Work will be undertaken on weekdays to avoid weekend holiday peak times.

To enable the work to be completed safely, some customers serviced by this line will be affected by power outages, some on more than one occasion.  The outages will be on Tuesday to Friday between 8.00am and 4.00pm. Affected customers will be notified by their power retailer of the dates when their power will need to be switched off.

Power to central Akaroa township will be maintained by generators throughout, thanks to the work Orion did in 2020 to enable heavy-duty generators to plug into its kiosks.

Macdonald says the old poles and hardware will be disposed of sustainably, “Where possible we’ll recycle the metal and other materials and the poles will be on-sold for non-commercial purposes such as playgrounds and parks.”

Full details of the project and the locations and timings for the outages can be found on Orion’s website or by calling Orion’s Customer Support team on 0800 363 9898 day or night.

See: Project details
See: advertisement in the Akaroa Mail: