Auckland, 1998. After a long, hot summer, the lights suddenly go out in the city.

Auckland, 1998. After a long, hot summer, the lights suddenly go out in the city.

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"There was a lot of anger."

At first glance, the summer of 1998 looks a lot like the one we've just had.

The nation has a woman in charge and Winston Peters as her deputy while the New Zealand cricket team promises much - but delivers less. And just like 2018, the weather's driving everyone crazy.

It would turn out to be the wettest year anyone could remember. And it wasn't just wet; it was hot, too, with February hotter than any month on record to date.

Appliance stores couldn't keep up with the demand for fans and air conditioners. As it turns out, the power supply to downtown Auckland couldn't, either.

Mathew Bolland remembers that summer well. In 1998 he was the communications manager at Mercury Energy, the company responsible for supplying the CBD.

"Rather than for heating in winter, (the power supply) to the CBD became about cooling in summer."

Mathew has been in the job for only six months and is enjoying himself. But that's about to end.

At the time, downtown Auckland is supplied by four major power cables and one smaller one from a substation in Penrose. Two of them, the older, gas-filled models, were nearing the end of their operational life. The other two are more modern, oil-filled versions.

In late January, one of the older cables blows. The CBD is down to only three cables, but no one's seriously inconvenienced. But then, on 9 February, its mate blows as well.

"At that point" says Mathew, "it was an issue rather than a crisis."

Then the unthinkable happens. Unbelievably, 10 days later, one of the two, more modern, oil-filled cables also goes. With just one cable left, power supply to the city is now critically impaired. No one at Mercury can believe it, but while they're aghast, they're not panicking. Their engineers are confident they can safely increase the load on the remaining cable while they repair the other three. The situation surely can't get any worse.

"It was almost beyond imagination that you could lose all four."

Friday, 20 February, 5.30pm. The last remaining major cable blows up in Mercury's faces. The 1998 Auckland power crisis has begun. And that evening, from Mercury Energy: an extraordinary statement. "The company no longer believes it can supply the CBD with electricity."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details