Wellington Chamber of Commerce

Media Statement

Thursday 29 March 2018

Chamber welcomes approval of Wellington Electricity’s earthquake readiness plan

Wellington Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the Commerce Commission decision approving Wellington Electricity’s earthquake readiness plan.

In December 2017, Wellington Electricity made an urgent application, supported by Wellington Chamber of Commerce, to the Commerce Commission to increase its prices to fund the earthquake strengthening of its substations and purchasing emergency equipment and critical spares.

This approval allows Wellington Electricity to undertake immediate earthquake readiness work around the local electricity network area.

“The Chamber has long been on record urging greater readiness and resilience. This work is simply about providing contingency in the case of earthquakes,” says John Milford, Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce.

“This is about ensuring readiness, and the work will also provide a direct economic benefit from investing in readiness equipment, which would allow for the earlier restoration of power to improve community welfare and economic recovery following an event.

“Given the marginal increase per customer per month, we believe it’s a key step in the right direction towards improving our electricity readiness in the Wellington Area.

“We know there is much more work to be done in the area of electricity resilience to enable our recovery following a large earthquake, but this is an interim step to a wider resilience plan incorporating other Wellington lifelines utilities and investment decisions.”

ENDS

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