Upcoming Smarts Road outages
As part of our drive to provide safe, secure and reliable electricity supply to the North Canterbury region, MainPower is undertaking comprehensive work on Smarts Road, starting 1 September 2025.
What are we doing?
We are erecting new poles along the length of Smarts Road in preparation for running a high voltage cable from across the Ashley Rakahuri River to Rangiora Woodend Road.
This upgrade will provide additional capacity and supply for the rapidly growing Woodend / Ravenswood / Pegasus area, eliminating the need for any possible future load control and reducing the risk of unexpected outages.
Why do we have to turn the power off?
A key part of this project is raising a high voltage line along the length of the Smarts Road, which we cannot do while the existing line is live. To carry out the work we need to turn the electricity off during the day, from 8am to 5pm.
As we progress along the road, we will be able to liven the areas that have already been completed. This means that some customers will experience fewer days without power than others.
Key information
At this stage, some properties will be without power for up to nine days, from Monday 1 September to Thursday 11 September.
We will not be working over the weekend so normal power will be restored from 5pm on Friday 5 September to 8am on Monday 8 September.