The Auckland blackout
2006 Auckland suffers a complete blackout but the Sky Tower was still serving coffee.
The Sky Tower remains open!
The Auckland blackout
2006 Auckland suffers a complete blackout but the Sky Tower was still serving coffee.
Incalculable damage has been done to Auckland's - and New Zealand's - reputation by yesterday's major blackout, business leaders say.
The immediate cost to the city's economy was as much as $70 million. The fragility of the power supply to the city was dramatically exposed when a fault on the main 110 kilovolt feeder line at the Otahuhu substation cut power to most of Auckland and Manukau City just before 8.30am.
Companies with back-up systems were more fortunate. At Auckland International Airport lights dimmed, air conditioning went off and some retailers were forced to close but no critical services were affected.
"This was the first comprehensive test of our back-up systems and we came through very well," airport chief executive Don Huse said.
Though many basic services were unavailable in the city, punters could still have a flutter at the SkyCity Casino.
"Since the 1998 power crisis we've put in place a strategy to enable uninterrupted power supply," SkyCity's general manager of attractions and support services, Noel Dempsey, said. "We were very busy because we were the only place selling coffee."
"An electricity company CEO said to me this morning that if it only takes a failure on a 110kV line to take out the best part of the city then heaven help us."
An edited Extract from an article by
ANDREW JANES and GARETH VAUGHAN