He said Powershop and PowerNet have shown no interest in his situation and offered no solutions to a planned power outage for his Palmerston business. Mr Sugrue, who operates the tearooms as well as owning several other buildings in the town, said he was sent a letter by his power retailer, Powershop, advising him the electricity to his store would be turned off as part of planned work on Wednesday from 9am to noon. He was later incorrectly informed the electricity would be out from
9am-3pm and possibly on Thursday. ‘‘I said ‘Hey look, we’ve got a situation where we’re going to have a power outage in school holidays. At six hours, you might as well say that our whole day is buggered’. ‘‘I talked to the manager of the power company. They didn’t really care,’’ Mr Sugrue said. Store manager Bobby Sarginson tried to get hold of Powershop by phone without success and was told to send an email, which he did, receiving an automated response, which said the
company would respond within seven days. Mr Sugrue got a reply 25 days later, telling him there was nothing Powershop could do. Mr Sarginson then rang and waited for 22 minutes before getting an answer, only to be told again there was nothing Powershop could do. But he was referred to the people doing the work — OtagoNet. OtagoNet contracts PowerNet to carry out line maintenance. Mr Sugrue talked to a PowerNet manager, who told him there was nothing they could do. The job had
to be done and they would not lend the business a generator to keep the doors open. Nor would they help connect a generator. In the discussion, it was discovered the planned maintenance was to cut trees growing through power lines. He questioned who owned the trees and whether it was their responsibility to pay for the outage and his costs. Mr Sugrue has previously been criticised by some Palmerston residents after he failed to maintain several of his buildings, though he has now made
a commitment to look after them. ‘‘If it was me that was upsetting all business in Palmerston, I’d certainly be on the front page.’’ Meridian Energy owns Powershop. Meridian Energy chief customer officer Lisa Hannifin said it always tried to do its best for customers, but acknowledged it could have done better in this case. ‘‘Our phone and email response times haven’t been where we want them to be lately and we apologise to any customers that have experienced any issues,’’ she said. A PowerNet
spokesperson said the company appreciated power outages were inconvenient, but the work was essential for the safety of the network. PowerNet considered many factors when planning outages, and this particular work had been planned to coincide with school holidays to minimise disruption to schools. Mr Sugrue was given the incorrect information about a change in outage date and PowerNet apologised for the error. The outage date remains the same as the original notification, Wednesday from 8.30am until noon. Under legislation, the responsibility for maintaining vegetation
near power lines is shared between landowners and the electricity network.
Palmerston, tearooms, Powershop, PowerNet, Meridian Energy, OtagoNet, planned power outage, generator, vegetation maintenance