Aurora Energy has rescheduled a planned power outage in Alexandra on Sunday, to ensure uninterrupted screening of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) final.

Just over 200 households in central Alexandra were scheduled to be without power on Sunday during the Rugby World Cup final as part of Aurora’s ongoing planned maintenance programme.

However, when the power company was contacted by the Central App to ask if they had considered the inconvenience for people, given the game starts at 8am, Aurora decided to reschedule the work.

Aurora Energy general manager service delivery Richard Starkey said Sunday was chosen for the work in central Alexandra because the majority of customers who will be impacted are commercial, which was why it was planned outside of normal business hours.

“We are aware that not everyone follows rugby, but those who do will want to watch the final, so we will delay the start of the planned outage on Sunday, 29 October from 9am until 10am. This will mean the power will be restored at 5pm instead of 4pm.”

Aurora Energy is mid-way through a five-year, $563 million investment programme to upgrade the electricity network in Central Otago/Wānaka, Queenstown Lakes and Dunedin.

He said they plan each job around six weeks in advance and the affected areas on Sunday include Tarbert St, Ventry St, Skird St, Taylor Pl, Shannon St Centennial Ave, Deel

St, Kenmare St, Bantry St, Thompson St, Fastnet St, Fox St, Pioneer Park, Walton St, Rivers St and Thompson Way.

Visit our power outages button for info about planned outages across the Central Otago network.