Electricity improvements for Alexandra and surrounding areas
10 October 2025This includes constructing a new building and installing modern equipment that will improve safety and reliability, and provide a more secure and future-proof power supply.
Extra safety measures have been put in place at the existing substation following a fault in late August on one of our high voltage power lines, when a circuit breaker failed to operate as anticipated. This might mean there are some brief power outages ahead of the new network configuration being completed in February 2026.
“While the substation continues to operate reliably, we’ve put extra safety measures in place while we transition supply over to the new substation,” said General Manager Service Delivery Richard Starkey.
“We may need to turn power off to additional customers for less than 10 minutes if a fault happens, so our contractors can perform additional checks, and appreciate everyone’s understanding if we need to do this,” he said.
Some high voltage 33 kV lines in the area also being replaced, which will be done in two stages during November 2025 and February 2026.
While the lines are being replaced, customers who get their electricity fed from the Alexandra and Omakau substations will have all their power supplied via one 33 kV circuit, where Alexandra would usually be fed by two circuits, and Omakau supplied via one circuit from the Alexandra substation.
“We’d like to reassure customers that this circuit has the capacity to supply all customers. It’s unlikely there will be any issues, however should an unforeseen event cause a fault on the remaining line during the work, it may take 6-8 hours to get power restored,” said Mr Starkey.
It is a timely reminder to be prepared for the unexpected, and information about how to prepare for power outages can be found on Aurora Energy’s website: https://www.auroraenergy.co.nz/power-outages/be-prepared-for-an-outage