Lines company Aurora Energy, which is upgrading its network, started replacing a pole after unexpectedly deferring work the week before. It was just another day for Mt Difficulty Winery's chief winemaker's Matt Dicey, until the power went off just after 9am. "We had 36 or 40 customers already booked for lunch, which was pretty much a full sitting and the power went off." And they said that they were just checking the powerbox and the direction of power leaves our transformer, and they said that we'd be experiencing a power cut and this was at 8:45am and the power went off at 9.10am." In a statement, Aurora Energy customer and engagement general manager Sian Sutton apologised for the lack of warning, saying ordinarily customers could expect notifications.

Source: Otago Daily Times November 26, 2020 18:56 UTC