The fierce storm which lashed the North Island last week left many without power as fallen trees, flooding and other weather effects damaged the electricity network and meant dozens of Vector field service crew working around the clock in challenging conditions to restore power.

While we know that power is critical to everyday life, Vector’s customers impacted were, on the whole, remarkably understanding of the situation. Text messages we sent to those without power were often met with messages of support and concern for the crews still out in the wild weather reconnecting the network.

Vector’s electricity network stretches from Warkworth in the north to Clevedon in the south, and the power distribution lines and cables running up, down and under the thousands of streets in between add up to 18,000 km of network.

Or, to look at it another way, that’s 120,000 power poles, 20,000 transformers, and 550,000 individual connection points. Keeping all those network connections running, and clear of near-by trees is a 24/7, 365-day-a-year job. And as the storm in the first week of 2018 proved, Auckland has a lot of trees.

So, it’s worth knowing that as well as responding as fast as possible when nature intervenes, Vector is also proactively deploying technology and data analytics to identify and prevent outages before they occur.

One example is that Vector and its Auckland network field service provider Northpower are using acoustic testing technology as a way of identifying network defects before they affect customers.

The two companies are the first in New Zealand to use the technology, which can dramatically speed up inspections of assets like power poles.

Vector chief network officer Andre Botha says it works like this:

“A team of two drive at normal speed past power lines, using the acoustic testing device. It can detect problems in connections high up the pole which would normally need a much slower manual investigation.

“From there, any potential problems can be inspected up-close, and defects resolved.

“It’s good news for us because it allows us to manually check only the connections which are of concern, rather than every pole, meaning we use our resources where the problems are most likely to occur.

“It’s also good news for our customers, because if we find defects early, we can schedule maintenance at a time that is most sympathetic to affected customers, rather than having to respond when the power unexpectedly goes off.”

Another technology called LiDAR is being used to scan lines for potential problems with trees. Trees coming into contact with lines (usually during high winds) account for between 10 and 15 percent of power outages on the Vector network.

LiDAR, which takes a scan image of a three dimensional corridor, can be used from a car, plane, helicopter or drone to quickly give detailed images of a wide area.

It can show areas where TreeScape should prioritise maintenance activities. 

On top of these initiatives is a data-driven approach to managing the Auckland electricity network, analysing network data to identify those areas which are creating a disproportionate number of faults and targeting them for more detailed inspection.

“This is a technology-driven way of doing network maintenance which will mean Vector delivers better service for less cost in the future.

“In the long term, this means our customers can expect fewer unplanned outages, without having to invest in a gold-plated network maintenance programme.”