In my community
Teaching and encouraging safety around electricity is one of our top priorities. When you're out and about, we want you to stay safe, especially around our electrical equipment.
Our equipment - including power boxes, poles, lines, substations and underground cables - is all around the community to keep your power on.
This equipment carries live electricity and should never be interfered with. It is dangerous and can even kill!
Take a look through the following sections to learn more about the different types of electrical equipment we have in the community and how to stay safe around it.
Power boxes
Our power boxes come in many different shapes, sizes and colours and carry between 230 volts and 11,000 volts to power many different properties in our community.
Safety tips
- Power boxes are live, watch where you drive: Some of our power boxes are near driveways. Vehicle damage to these can be a serious safety risk and cause power outages. Make sure you always know where the power box is before entering or exiting driveways.
- Keeping children safe: Power boxes are not playgrounds. Make sure children know that playing on or near these boxes is dangerous and could be fatal.
- Stay clear: Never jump on, sit or poke objects into power boxes. Damaging or interfering with power boxes is extremely dangerous and illegal.
- Report damage: If you see a damaged power box:
- Stay clear and keep others away.
- Call Unison on 0800 2 UNISON (0800 2 86476).
If your children spot a damaged power box, ensure they know to follow these steps and tell an adult immediately.
Help us keep our equipment safe
Report any damage, vandalism or interfering with electrical equipment by calling Unison on 0800 2 UNISON or reporting it here and, if necessary, notify the Police on 111.
Power poles and lines
Power poles are built to carry the power lines which give us electricity. These power lines carry electricity at either 33000 volts (going into our substations), 11000 volts (to supply the community) or 400 - 230 volts (to supply properties).
Stay clear to stay safe
Electricity can kill. Interfering with power poles, lines or boxes puts everyone at risk. Our equipment have crucial safety features, such as earth cables, that make sure our protective devices work properly. Earth cables are designed so that they can shut off the power if there's a problem, like a power line falling to the ground. This an important piece of equipment on our power poles for everyone’s safety.
Report damage to Unison
If you notice damager or suspicious activity near a power pole or box, please contact Unison immediately on 0800 2 UNISON. Stay clear from the area and keep others away until it's safe.
Safety tips for everyone:
- No climbing: Electricity can "jump" even if you don't touch a live power line.
- Don't play on stay wires: These wires keep our power poles stable and firmly in place. Messing with them could cause a pole to fall.
- Smart planting: Choose plant species carefully when planting near power poles.
- Know what's below: Never dig around power poles, cables can be underneath and you could make the pole unstable.
- Look up and around: Before working or activities like flying kites, fishing or using drones, check for power lines and stay clear.
If you own a boat…
Know your mast, aerial and rod holder height on land and water. When transporting, any load over five metres needs a High Load Permit. to help keep you clear of power lines.
Aviation
Low-flying aircraft (including drones) and balloons should also avoid power lines. Pilots and ground crews must be aware of power lines lines when planning activities and should check with Unison and Transpower when scheduling activities such as aerial displays.
Substations
Substations are large, fenced areas housing high voltage transformers, power lines and other equipment to convert high voltage electricity (33,000 volts) to a lower voltage (11,000 volts), which can be used to power our community.
These areas are extremely dangerous to the public and unauthorised entry inside can result in serious life-long, or fatal, injuries.
- Teach children to never climb or throw objects over substation fences.
- Any sports equipment or other items which make their way over substation fences should be left where they are until someone from Unison is able to retrieve the item.
- If you have any questions or concerns around a Unison substation area, give us a call on 0800 2 UNISON.
Unison work sites
We are committed to ensuring the health and safety of our people and our communities.
Unison carries out a range of project and fault works, such as excavation to lay underground cables, replacing power poles, and installing power boxes and large transformers. We take care to ensure safe work practices including traffic management plans (where required) are in place to protect the community from any potential safety risks created by the works.
Sometimes, these jobs may take more than one day to complete, requiring work sites to be unattended outside normal working hours.
- During these times, it’s important to ensure children and teenagers are aware of the dangers of unattended work sites.
- Our work sites must comply with safety standards at all times, however, we require our public to exercise good judgement when it comes to work sites around the community.
- If you have questions or concerns around a Unison work site in your area, give us a call on 0800 2 UNISON.
