Northland power outage review: Electricity Authority says most tower collapse fixes now complete

Most of the recommendations from the report into the collapse of the pylon that caused a massive power outage across Northland have been completed. Photo / Michael Craig

Most of the 26 recommendations from the report into the collapse of a transmission tower that left 88,000 Northland customers – 180,000 residents and 20,000 businesses – without power last year are now complete.

After the collapse near Glorit, south of Wellsford, on June 20, 2024, the Electricity Authority was asked by then Energy Minister Simeon Brown to carry out a review under the Electricity Industry Act 2010.

In its earlier investigation, national power grid operator Transpower blamed its contractor Omexom’s crew, who had been working on the pylon when an inexperienced and unsupervised worker removed all the nuts from three of the tower’s four legs.

While the Electricity Authority report, released in September last year, reiterated that finding, it also found “multiple factors” contributed to the transmission tower’s collapse.

On Thursday, authority chief executive Sarah Gillies said 19 of the recommendations were for Transpower and had been completed.

“These recommendations were focused on improving resilience, processes for maintenance work, and grid maintenance contracting arrangements and assurance processes.

“Across the electricity sector a considerable amount of time and resources have been committed to implement these recommendations, leading to systemic changes.”

Omexom also completed three recommendations focused on reviews to strengthen training and site supervision.

Another three recommendations, while not yet completed, are being progressed, Gillies said.

These include the review of the value of lost load settings, to be carried out by the authority by early 2026, and two reviews by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

MBIE’s recommendations include considering the authority’s information-gathering powers to enable it to require details from non-participants.

The region-wide outage left some residents without power for several days and was estimated to have cost the region between $37.5 million and $80m.

Transpower initially stated it had no mechanism for compensation but, along with Omexom, contributed $1m to a regional resilience fund.

Northland MP Grant McCallum, who lobbied for the compensation, said it was great to see progress being made by Transpower and Omexom.

“No community, least of all Northland, needs to see this level of incompetence again.

“I would expect the EA to keep a watching brief on Transpower and Omexom to make sure they continue to deliver on the service Northlanders expect.”

The authority also said such a failure during routine maintenance should never occur.

Gillies said it was “an incredibly disruptive event” for Northlanders.

“All New Zealanders should have access to secure and resilient electricity.

“Significant work has now taken place which will improve the resilience, safety and reliability of New Zealand’s electricity system.”

Separate from the report and its recommendations, the authority conducted a compliance investigation into the tower collapse and lodged a formal complaint with the independent rulings panel alleging a breach of the code by Transpower.

And in November, a class action was filed against Transpower and its lines maintenance contractor Omexom over the outage.

The class action seeks to recover losses on behalf of all Northland businesses that were impacted.

The case is being run by two law firms, LeeSalmonLong and Piper Alderman, with backing from litigation funder Omni Bridgeway.

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.