Transpower Restores Second 220 KV Circuit Into Northland

Transpower has restored full security of electricity supply into Northland this evening after installing additional temporary structures and returning the second 220 kV circuit to service.

Transpower Executive General Manager Grid Delivery Mark Ryall said Transpower’s crews have been working as quickly and safely as possible to reconnect the second circuit.

“Restoring the second circuit was more complex given its position under the fallen tower,” he said.

“Our crews have managed to transfer the conductor to the three additional poles erected over the last few days. Northland now has full security of power supply with this circuit returned to service.”

Mr Ryall said work will now start on designing a permanent solution to replace the temporary structures.

“Our temporary structures will be replaced in due course with a new, permanent tower,” he said.

“That design work has started already. The temporary structures are sufficiently robust and resilient to provide for security of supply until the permanent fix is in place.

“We’d like to thank the people of Northland again for their patience while we restored full security of supply. Thank you also to everyone in our engineering and service provider teams who have worked hard to design and deliver this solution.”

Investigations underway

Mr Ryall said there has rightfully been a lot of interest in what has caused the tower to fall, and now that power has been fully restored to Northland, Transpower continues to turn its attention to focus on those investigations.

“While we have announced what went wrong, we now need to undertake a full investigation to understand why and the wider circumstances that led to the tower falling,” he said.

“We are committed to learning from this event, and implementing any recommendations that may be identified. We will also cooperate with the Electricity Authority as it investigates independently, and any other external reviews.”

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