UNISON

Transpower has been working with lines companies Unison and Eastland to reconfigure electricity distribution in the region, but warns there are limits to the ...

Spokesperson Nathan Green said Transpower was working on a plan to bypass the Redclyffe substation and bring power to its Whakatu substation to enable Unison to reconnect more homes and businesses. [announced late on Tuesday afternoon](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/weather-news/131220400/first-progress-made-restoring-power-to-gisborne-and-hawkes-bay) that it had be able to supply Hastings-based Unison Networks with enough power to supply about 17,000 homes by re-routing power from the grid through a different substation at Fernhill. In an update on Wednesday afternoon, it said Unison had now been able to reconfigure its network to take enough power to reconnect a total of about 38,000 homes. The substation had fed power into most of the region prior to arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle and Transpower said it was now assessing the damage. [still without power](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131232063/tens-of-thousands-still-without-power-on-wednesday-as-reconnection-begins), but the national grid operator said it hoped to progress work to reconnect more homes and businesses on Thursday. Transpower says power has now been restored to about 62,000 homes in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne as a result of efforts to re-route power around its crippled Redclyffe substation in Napier.