Voltage is surprisingly low for my place today.

@alex I you can see the transformer tapping up and down there. Probably just the control loop trying to keep it in bounds

@xssfox our little transformer

The voltage rarely changes, unless I'm smashing out export or import.

@alex it probably doesn't get changed there but at one of the chonky distribution/sub ones

@xssfox Yeah these 11kV's run all the way back to the main grid exit point for the region, so whatever's going on there.

Just unusual, not in a bad way, just "huh interesting" kinda way.

The little transformer only has three houses on it and I'm fairly sure that given it's rating if the other two houses applied for export on solar they might get limits

@alex In Australia I believe they limit solar inverter sizes so that export can't be higher than the rated infra, so should be fine

@xssfox software limits applied on inverter but yeah, back in Wellington it was common to get 2.5kW of export whereas up here I got given 10kW (but only have the hardware for 8kW).

More and more are moving to dynamic export limits they can control on the fly via remote signals.

Ohh, there's work up at the top end of our road which means our feed is taking a very long path compared to normal "most direct" 11kV line run we usually are tapped off of is disconnected.

This is a planned outage, 33 properties affected. 

Cause: "Network Project Work" 

Power off:  3 Feb 2026, 9:15 am 
Estimated restoration: 3 Feb 2026, 3:30 pm 

So will see if/when they finish up if the voltage changes again.

Of course I fell into a rabbit hole wondering why they were replacing/extending lines along there and found this from an asset update report from Powerco;

Network issue

The Mangorei 11kV voltage regulating station supplies three feeders (1,218 ICPs) at 11kV. The 11kV supply is from Brooklands substation by a dedicated feeder, Brooklands-5, which consists of 1.7km underground cable and 3km of overhead line. This feeder is rated for 33kV operation.

The underground section of Brooklands-5 feeder is forecast to reach capacity by 2030.

Mangorei’s voltage regulator (manufactured in 1982) is forecast to approach capacity.

Furthermore, the Mangorei regulating station is not at the centre of the demand, so voltage quality of two feeders is approaching the acceptable limit (95%).