Farmers in firing line of $500m Think Big-style power link

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Electricity grid operator Transpower yesterday unveiled two broad route options for a $500 million mega-power link, to almost double its capacity to keep Auckland and Northland lights on.

Whichever it chooses, the final 7km at the Auckland end of its proposed 200km transmission line to Otara from the southern Waikato River will be underground, to avoid major urban upheaval.

But about 1000 farmers and other rural landowners with properties potentially in the way of the 400,000-volt line from the key Whakamaru substation will be on tenterhooks until next June.

They will know by then - after what state-owned Transpower says will be intensive consultations - which route the line will take subject to Resource Management Act approvals and the blessing of the Electricity Commissioner.

The organisation hopes to obtain land easements from "willing sellers", with whom it promises to negotiate fair compensation of up to a fifth of the project cost, and says it has some room to accommodate objections within 500m-wide corridors.

But it retains the power of compulsory acquisition from unwilling landowners if their properties cannot be skirted by a final route requiring easements of 60m to 120m, under which buildings cannot be constructed or tall trees grown.

Between 450 and 500 steel pylons will tower 40m to 70m over the landscape, each about 400m apart, and Transpower is posting details to land owners within 3km of each route option because of their high visibility.

It says it needs to have power surging through the new link - the first phase of a $1.5 billion upgrade to the national grid - by the winter of 2010 to avoid shortfalls in its ability to satisfy Auckland electricity needs.


The western option follows the path of one of its existing 110,000-volt lines, but the eastern route mostly crosses virgin territory, passing about a kilometre west of both Putaruru and Tirau.

Both options pass about the same distance west of Morrinsville.

Asked at a briefing in Auckland why Transpower was not restricting itself to an existing route to minimise disruption, chief executive Dr Ralph Craven pointed to a need to guard against natural disasters by not putting "all our eggs into one basket".

Consultations have already started with eight district and city councils, as well as the Waikato and Auckland regional councils, which met in Hamilton on Wednesday.

Local Government New Zealand's president, former Hauraki District mayor Basil Morrison, said the project might be New Zealand's largest since the 1980s "Think Big" energy developments.

Waikato Federated Farmers president John Fisher said nobody wanted power lines through their land. But he welcomed Transpower's promise of fair compensation, although he said many farmers would question why more power stations were not built closer to Auckland.

Transpower said it was still waiting for a response to a request last month for proposals for a new Auckland power station.


Mega-power link

Transpower will hold open-days on the route options next month in 14 communities which may be affected.

Freephone No: (0800) 33-88-66.


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