1998 Auckland power crisis
Encyclopedia
The 1998 Auckland power crisis was a five-week-long power outage
.
Almost all of downtown Auckland
in New Zealand
was supplied electricity by Mercury Energy
via four power cable
s, two of them 40-year-old oil-filled cables that were past their replacement date. One of the cables failed on 20 January, possibly due to the unusually hot and dry conditions, another on 9 February. Due to the increased load from the failure of the first cables, the remaining two failed on 19 and 20 February, leaving about 20 city blocks (except parts of a few streets) without power.
Queen Street
was almost deserted for the first few days, as few businesses could operate. Some brought goods out onto the street to sell, but heavy rain in the first week made that impractical. Generators were brought in from around the country to power essential services and some businesses. These made Queen Street a very noisy place and thus deterred customers. Some businesses estimated that the outage cost them at least NZ$60,000 per week.
The event became an international media spectacle. The story was often exaggerated or embellished when it was reported overseas, giving the impression most of the city or even the entire island was without electricity.
It took five weeks before an emergency overhead line was completed to restore the power supply. For much of that time, about 60,000 of the 74,000 people who worked in the area worked from home or from relocated offices in the suburbs. Some businesses relocated staff to other New Zealand cities, or even to Australia. The majority of the 6,000 apartment dwellers in the area had to find alternative accommodation.
Temporary power was supplied for a while from large container ships at the port supplying power to the CBD
grid. New power lines to the CBD were strung along power poles alongside railway lines.
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
.
Almost all of downtown Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
was supplied electricity by Mercury Energy
Mercury Energy
Mercury Energy is the retail operating division of Mighty River Power, a New Zealand State-owned enterprise. It retails electricity and gas to customers, primarily in the North Island of New Zealand...
via four power cable
Power cable
A power cable is an assembly of two or more electrical conductors, usually held together with an overall sheath. The assembly is used for transmission of electrical power...
s, two of them 40-year-old oil-filled cables that were past their replacement date. One of the cables failed on 20 January, possibly due to the unusually hot and dry conditions, another on 9 February. Due to the increased load from the failure of the first cables, the remaining two failed on 19 and 20 February, leaving about 20 city blocks (except parts of a few streets) without power.
Queen Street
Queen Street, Auckland
Queen Street is the major commercial thoroughfare in the Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand's main population centre. It starts at Queens Wharf on the Auckland waterfront, adjacent to the Britomart Transport Centre and the Downtown Ferry Terminal, and runs uphill for almost three kilometres in a...
was almost deserted for the first few days, as few businesses could operate. Some brought goods out onto the street to sell, but heavy rain in the first week made that impractical. Generators were brought in from around the country to power essential services and some businesses. These made Queen Street a very noisy place and thus deterred customers. Some businesses estimated that the outage cost them at least NZ$60,000 per week.
The event became an international media spectacle. The story was often exaggerated or embellished when it was reported overseas, giving the impression most of the city or even the entire island was without electricity.
It took five weeks before an emergency overhead line was completed to restore the power supply. For much of that time, about 60,000 of the 74,000 people who worked in the area worked from home or from relocated offices in the suburbs. Some businesses relocated staff to other New Zealand cities, or even to Australia. The majority of the 6,000 apartment dwellers in the area had to find alternative accommodation.
Temporary power was supplied for a while from large container ships at the port supplying power to the CBD
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
grid. New power lines to the CBD were strung along power poles alongside railway lines.
External links
- Detailed write up by Peter Gutmann
- Final report of the Ministerial Inquiry into the Auckland Power Supply Failure