Plans for improved resilience of Northland electricity network announced

The transmission pylon which fell last June at Glorit, north of Auckland, caused major disruption to Northland’s electricity network. Now, Top Energy, Transpower and Northpower are collaborating to boost the network’s resilience.

The vulnerability of Northland’s electricity network was dramatically illustrated last June when a pylon collapse left 88,000 people in the region without power.

Now, Top Energy, Northpower and Transpower, as the owners and operators of region’s power lines and substations, have announced plans to boost network resilience and reliability for Northland.

The pylon fell last June in Glorit, northwest of Auckland, cutting off power in Northland. It quickly became clear the cause was Omexom contractors removing too many bolts from the pylon’s base all at once – then gravity did the rest.

The fault was estimated to have cost the region between $37.5 million and $80m and left shops, businesses and homes in the dark. Transpower has since announced a $1m fund to help those hit by the outage.

Transpower, Northpower and Top Energy have published their emerging plan for infrastructure investments to ensure a more resilient, reliable electricity network and help Northland take advantage of its abundant solar, wind and geothermal energy potential.

The three companies say they are committed to improving Northland’s power network and a range of initiatives to achieve that are under way.

They are also working together to identify what new electricity infrastructure will further support resilience and also enable new renewable generation and load growth, using the concept of an “Energy Bridge”.

An Energy Bridge would consider and address the region’s energy potential and challenges holistically, and builds on earlier work to consider whether a “Renewable Energy Zone” might work for Northland.

Transpower acting chief executive John Clarke said the work already under way to boost resilience is important, and it makes sense to look at unlocking future growth at the same time.

“We are each taking action to reduce the impacts of major weather events and outages with a range of upgrades and proactive improvements, including to lines, substations, equipment, and maintenance plans. The Energy Bridge will help further by allowing more power to flow through and out of Northland, providing not only added resilience but opportunities for economic development.”

Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw said existing regulations are part of the challenge for Northland in realising the potential of its abundant solar, wind and geothermal energy.

“To build large amounts of extra capacity in the electricity network today, with the current rules we work to, would add significant costs to Northlanders’ power bills. We don’t want to do this. So, we want to have this discussion with the businesses and communities of Northland, as well as central government, to fully understand the priorities and options while keeping costs down for the region,” Shaw said.

Transpower, Northpower and Top Energy plan further discussions in early 2025 for the businesses, stakeholders and people of Northland to share their vision for the region and develop collective priorities for electricity infrastructure investment.

Northpower chief executive Andrew McLeod said through working together, there is potential that Northland’s clean energy can not only create a more resilient, abundant power supply for local people, but may also allow electricity to flow further south to power parts of Auckland, providing additional benefits.

“Individually, we are limited in what grid capacity we can unlock for new renewables in Northland, but together we can form a plan that gives Government, investors and our own network planners a vision for what Northlanders want their energy future to look like, and how to get there,” McLeod said.

The full document outlining the resilience and reliability work, as well as the context and possibilities for the Energy Bridge, is available at https://www.transpower.co.nz/projects/te-tai-tokerau-northland.

Anybody keen to be involved in discussions on Northland’s energy future in 2025 can email feedback@transpower.co.nz.

What is a ‘Renewable Energy Zone’?

A Renewable Energy Zone is where new generation and large electricity users may co-locate to maximise the value from new electricity infrastructure. Consultation on developing a possible Renewable Energy Zone in Northland in 2022 found there was strong interest in the project, alongside a shared desire for careful planning and collaboration. However, it also highlighted the issue of fair cost allocation, as under the current regulatory settings, Northland households and businesses would bear a large proportion of the costs through transmission charges via the distribution companies.