Reality Check: Connecting your property to electricity

With a flick of a switch the light comes on, the jug boils, the house is warm, dinner is cooked. Electricity is a wonderful, clean and efficient part of everyday life that we take for granted.

But getting electricity to your new house or lifestyle block can be an expensive and convoluted process.

To understand the process it is best to start with the role of each party:

Surveyor

Surveys the land and prepares plans for district council subdivision approval. The council may impose resource consent conditions and items that must be complied with before consent is granted.

Network provider

Owns and supplies the hardware or equipment (powerlines, poles, transformers) to bring electricity to the roadside boundary - does not sell electricity.

Electricity supplier (such as Trustpower)

Sells and supplies electricity to customers.

Waipa Networks customer connection supervisor Bill Gray says when subdividing a block of land or simply carving off a lifestyle block from the family farm, the consent process for electricity supply starts with a surveyor who supplies a copy of the proposed subdivision to the network provider which outlines what is needed to get the power to the boundary of the new property.

"We always carry out a site visit to ensure that all eventualities have been taken into account for the electricity supply," says Gray.

It is at this stage that details such as "landscape protection zones", underground supply or above-ground supply are considered for preparing quotes to reticulate power.

"No two properties are alike," says Gray. "Land contour, trees, access - they all play a part in costings. We try to work the best arrangement to suit the customer and tend to over-quote so they don't get a surprise bill that hasn't been factored in."

If the property is within 400m of an existing transformer and the house is close to the road boundary then it might only be cabling that is required.

The reticulation costs are provided to the surveyor and once he has met all the network provider requirements and conditions then a statement to satisfy the consent process is issued.

Once payment and paperwork are complete, the network provider will start work to get power to the roadside boundary of each property.

District councils have different requirements. Some state electricity must be provided to the boundary of each house lot. This is usually an underground fuse pillar normally situated on the boundary of two lots and can provide for up to three connections or a network connection point can be from an existing pole on the road frontage of a lot.

Other district plans only require a statement from the network provider that electricity can be supplied.

From the boundary it is the job of an electrical contractor to run the power to the house site although Gray says many network providers also have contracting divisions which can carry out the "boundary to house" work and will often incorporate all services in the same access trench (power, telephone and water) to save money.

"Getting electricity to new rural lifestyle blocks can be a can of worms," says Gray.

If the new subdivision is at the end of an isolated road with few other houses the dollars soon mount up: $25,000 per km for new power lines plus high voltage extension and transformers at $4000 to $5000.

If the house site is at the far end of the block it might require another transformer to ensure the power arrives at the house when you flick that switch.