No power today - the ghost of 1998 returns... sort of

At some point today North Island will run out of electricity apparently.

We'll be powerless....well maybe not, but we have been warned.

While the rest of the island gasps in shock for Jafas this is a bit of déjà vu. Flashback to 1998 and Queen St over half empty with footpaths festooned with cables leading to generators of all shapes and sizes in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Large upmarket hotels with flash enterances partially blocked by engine alternators because there wasn't enough room for both generator and refrigerated shipping container in the alley by the kitchens. Workers on extended leave, working from home or crammed into small suburban branches or the bosses' homes. I know a diesel mechanic who worked a lot of hours over those weeks.

The question it why is yet another power crisis happening? Didn't the suppliers and regulators see it coming?
Maintenance for New Plymouth had been planned for months if not years.
Hot dry summers do happen even if the hydro lakes don't usually run dry until winter.
Didn't it ever occur to the powers that be that the same hot dry weather that dries up South Island (and North Island for that matter) hydro lakes also warms up the low running Waikato River to the point that Huntly Power Station can no longer discharge into it without killing the river system?

Even in the Manuwatu the wind sometimes stops blowing. No wind means no electricity from the wind turbines. That is exactly what happened last Friday, my secretary saw it.

So who is to blame this time?
The suppliers?
The regulators?
All the consumers or just the greedy power hungry ones?