Northland power restored

Trying to charge your EV in Northland may have been tricky due to a power cut.

A major circuit went down at about 9.38am on November 27 with power restored to many places from after 11am.

Northpower estimated more than 42,000 of its customers were affected, while traffic signals were also knocked out.

The cut also meant Refining NZ’s Marsden Point plant had to be shut down, the company advising power was later fully restored without incident.

The refinery is proceeding with construction of a $37 million solar farm after receiving approval to invest from the Refining NZ Board.

The 31-hectare farm (Maranga Ra) will be New Zealand’s largest and will supply 26.7MW or around 10% of the refinery’s total electricity needs.

Maranga Ra will reduce electricity costs by about $3million-$4m and reduce CO2 emissions by a further 18,000 tonnes annually.

Construction is expected to start before the end of this year and be completed by December 2020.