>>> an unknown number of street's of homes suddenly had no
>>> hot-water power as all the relays dropped out.
>>
>> NZ has centralized hot water?  Or separate power for water heating?
>> How ... different!
>
>I'm assuming Russell is talking about gas water heaters, and
>the temporary dip in the voltage caused the pilot light
>circuits to shut down (turn off the gas supply).

No, NZ used to use a ripple control system to allow the supplier to turn off 
water heating to load shed, and turn it on at night or during low load 
times. Nowadays they run a seperate light control line that supplies a relay 
coil, to turn on the heaters. I believe it was the latter control line he 
managed to short, and blow the fuse in the metering supply controller. 

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