Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Darryn Fisher: North Chamber CEO on the impact of the Northland power outage on businesses

Transcript

Darryn Fisher: North Chamber CEO on the impact of the Northland power outage on businesses · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: How about the power in Northland or lack of it?
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Day?
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Transpower issued the grid emergency. They're looking into why transmission
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: towers fall over. Full restoration will take until at least
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: this afternoon, they say. Now Dan Fish's with North Chamber,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: he's the boss of North Chambers with.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Us, Darren morning, Good morning, Mike.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: How's it not at all? How's it gone overnight? Do
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you know?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a little fragile. There's still still many
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: parts of the region who are no longer with power,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: particularly those large power users in CBD areas, and as
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I understood late last night, many rural areas still without
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: power as well.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So at least you'll get it for the weekend, which
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I suppose is something. What was that? Do you have
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: any sort of read on the business effect? How many
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: doors had to get closed and how much money was lost?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm told at the stage in terms of dollar
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: value losses, but it's going to be significant. I mean
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: we already know it's some economic kidwins at play and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: things aren't looking good. I mean just liquidations here on year.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: We found yesterday we're up fifty percent here on year,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: so that's a pretty concerning.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: So those liquidations you talk of, that's for Northland or
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: for the whole country, because those I saw some numbers,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: but they were for the whole country, not Northland.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, whole country. But we're pretty consistent in regards to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: those figures here in.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Northold Road hasn't helped, of course, absolutely.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: The fragility of our infrastructure is a real concern.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I think how much of a talking point is that
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: because as we were talking to somebody yesterday, and of
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: course the road's opening from Marto Riki, which is something
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I guess, but between that and you know, this thing
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: falling over, I mean you've got to be sitting there thinking, God,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: how bad does it have to get?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I spoke to some of our more
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: regional business associations yesterday and how they described it as
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: if you know, this is not the knockout blow for
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of small businesses that certainly a standing eight
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: count you know, it could be very well one of
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the things that just keep piling on top of some
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of these small employers.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: You know, what are you hearing about here? And there's
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a couple of stories floating around. Did you see the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: picture of the transmission tower that had fallen over. The
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: plate at the bottom looked fine, and there's a number
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of stories floating about there were water blasting bolts, too
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: much rust, the bolts gave way, the thing fell over.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not entirely sure of what the cause is
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: as yet. I think there's an investigation and all over well,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I can say we've been quite pleased with the urgency
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: in which things have got back on track. I mean,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: North Power and Top Energy. You've done a fantastic job
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: reorganizing things to get as much of the residential people
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: back up and running, which is really important for families
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: and schools in areas that you need to stay on
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: over and I can imagine the loss of stock with
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: small businesses, cafes, and they would be really feeling.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It this morning exactly So hopefully done. But do you
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: know if it's temporary or permanent, this what they're going
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: to do today? Are they going to put the tower
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: back up or are they going to use a crane
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: or a truck or whatever.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I did see some reports that there's a multiple
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: different solutions been sought at the moment, but I think
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: whatever it is, it's going to be a relative band
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: aid solution. For the time being until something more permanent
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: is put in place. I don't think the permanent solution
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: is going to happen quickly.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, the weather wasn't a thing, was it. I mean,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: it was a bit blowy, and you had the rain
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and all that, But that wouldn't have blown a tower over,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: would it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't think so. No, But I mean the North
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: was severely hammered with weather night before, so feel for
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: those people who were battling that on top of power
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: outages that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: The next day wet end in the dark. Darren, go
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: well this weekend. I appreciate it very much, Darren Fish
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and North Chamber. See for more from News Talks' b
• 3:35
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• 3:38
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