Vector Network News August 20

Vector Network News

Standard & Poor’s has reaffirmed Vectors credit rating as BBB+ with a stable outlook. This is a rating that Vector has held since 2002.

NETWORKS SUMMARY for week ending 19 August 2012
ELECTRICITY
• The week ended warm, if a little wet over the last week with an average temperature of 16.5 degrees. Car v pole incidents were kept to a minimum, with a car hitting a pole on the corner of Rockfield Road and Walls Road in Oranga and another in Mangere. However, a spate of car v transformers caused problems for customers over the weekend. One occurred early Saturday morning in Papatoetoe and the other was late Sunday night in Manurewa. A feeder fault caused a short power outage for 201 Parnell customers and a line was also pulled down at the Showgrounds in Warkworth but the network was not affected and no customers were impacted. The spectacular electrical storm over Auckland on Friday night caused a minor outage in Helensville when lightning struck poles.

GAS TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
• We had a couple of third party strikes on our gas distribution network this week. A 10mm service was hit by a stump grinder on Nolan Street in Greenlane, contractors from Sanderson Group drilled through a gas pipe in the boundary of a country club in Tauranga and a customer called to report that his gas meter had been vandalised causing a leak at the meter. Faults crews made all sites safe and repaired the equipment. Please take care around our gas network and call 0508 B4 U WORK (248 967) or 0800 B4 U DIG if outside Auckland.

Metering
• Nationwide meter deployment continues for both Genesis and Contact with the total number of advanced meters deployed by AMS rapidly approaching the 400,000 mark.
• Last week another major milestone was achieved when deployment started in Northland. For several months, AMS has been involved in preparatory work with both field service providers and Northpower technicians in order to gear up for the deployment. The first meter was installed in Kamo in Whangarei and another 200 or so meters will be installed over the remainder of the month. We’ll keep you posted on the progress towards our 400,000th install - our next major milestone on the way to our 2013 target of 500,000+ advanced meters in the market.

Project update
• CBD upgrade - Civil works are nearly complete along Waverly Street. This is part of our planned CBD upgrade works. The civil works are progressing ahead of schedule, minimising the impact on the nearby residents and electrical works are scheduled for the end September. Electrical works and duct installation completed on Airedale Street; final road reinstatement will occur once the crane from the adjacent building moves from the road. We have completed work on two out of the five distribution substations on Stamford Hotel/Plaza and Quay West.

SHORTS
• Vector owns over 17,737 kilometres of overhead and underground lines in the greater Auckland area, and 12,572 kilometres of gas pipe lines, with almost half supplying gas to Auckland.

The company owns and manages a unique portfolio which consists of electricity distribution, gas transmission and distribution, electricity and gas metering installations and data management services, natural gas and LPG and fibre optic networks.

Vector is listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange with ticker symbol VCT. Our majority shareholder, with voting rights of 75.4%, is the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust (AECT).

For further information, visit www.vector.co.nz

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