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Wild weather in late December led to hundreds of outages across Franklin, making it a busy time for Counties Energy staff like Nelson Harris.
What’s your job title, and how long have you worked for Counties Energy?
I’m a reactive line mechanic in the services department at Counties Energy, and I’ve been part of the team since 2012.
How did you come to work in this field?
I’ve been in and out of the industry since I was 18, working in different branches and regions around the country. Eventually, I found my way to Counties Energy – and I’ve been here ever since.
What do you do day-to-day?
Most days involve responding to a wide range of electrical faults, from ground issues to pole work, depending on what comes through our call centre. If there are no reported faults, I patrol the network to identify any unreported or potential hazards. I’ll then document these and escalate them to management based on the urgency and any risks to safety or supply.
How much of your job is emergency work?
A fairly large part. Emergency work includes anything that could pose a safety risk or anything that causes a significant interruption to supply, and that’s essentially the core focus of my role.
What sorts of things do you consider when attending an unplanned outage?
Safety is always the first priority – for myself, the team, the community, and anyone affected by the fault. From there, I assess the situation using my experience, the condition of the site, and the needs of the occupants. I try to give every customer the best advice and effort possible.
What’s the strangest job or call-out you’ve attended?
There have been a few memorable ones, but the “haunted house” stands out. A customer had upgrades done on their submain board, and afterwards, appliances would turn on and off at odd hours. They were convinced the house was haunted.
After checking the main board and hearing their theory, I was a bit taken aback myself. But with their help, we eventually discovered their house circuit was connected to a load-controlled circuit for hot water, which automatically turns on and off at certain times.
It probably wasn’t amusing for the customer or the contractor at first, but it definitely made my day. In this job, you learn to appreciate the lighter moments.
What about the longest call-out?
That’s hard to pinpoint – we have a 15-hour working limit within a 24-hour period due to safety – you do have to be vigilant when you’re working with electricity, up poles and often in harsh weather conditions.
What do you love about your job?
I really enjoy completing the tasks that come with my role, but what I value most is meeting and connecting with the people across our district and whenua. It ties in with one of my favourite Māori proverbs:
He aha te mea nui o te ao?
Māku e kī atu – he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, people, people.
And of course, payday is always a great day too!
Counties Energy 2025 Stats
- 347 maintenance and upgrade projects were completed across the network, alongside customer projects, new connections, reliability, network and system growth projects.
- 790 high voltage planned outages to complete the works programme (maintenance and new network build), of which 206 didn’t affect customer supply.
- 435 high voltage unplanned outages due to winds and weather events, vegetation, car vs pole and other miscellaneous outages.
- 14 significant weather events in 2025 affecting the network, with wind speeds exceeding 80kmh, the benchmark used to identify likely impact on the network. Two of these were significant storm events, impacting a large number of customers.
Weather tips
With increasingly changeable weather patterns, Counties Energy encourages customers to stay informed and prepared.
- Register for our Outage Hub App at app.countiesenergy.co.nz.
- Check out our outage tips countiesenergy.co.nz/outage-tips.
- Always treat all lines as live and dangerous. Stay well clear of downed lines and report hazards immediately on 0800 100 202 or call 111 in an emergency.
- Seventy per cent of power outages during storm events are caused by trees and vegetation.
- Customers are reminded to ensure they have their trees near powerlines properly maintained.
More information on tree safety and responsibilities can be found at www.countiesenergy.co.nz/safety/trees-near-power-lines.
