Grid co calls for answers

By CHRIS DANIELS


Transpower is asking for anyone with ideas that could delay the need for new powerlines into Auckland to come forward.

As owner and operator of the national electricity grid, Transpower is planning up to $1.5 billion of new investment. But before it can be approved, it needs to assure the Electricity Commission there is not a better way of doing the job.

So it has publicly asked for possible "non-transmission" alternatives for meeting the rapidly increasing demand in Auckland and Northland. This could include new power stations or ways of reducing peak demand.

Instead of big power stations and long transmission lines, there is an increasing trend towards smaller generators, built closer to where the electricity is actually needed.

Transpower chief executive Ralph Craven said the company had been "of the view for some time that significant investment in the national grid into Auckland is needed by 2010".

He said a proposal for a new transmission line stretching from South Waikato to South Auckland had been developed, with public consultation due to start later this year.

This meant it was now a good time to ask for information on potential alternatives.

"It is possible that such alternatives may have the effect of deferring transmission investment for a number of years," Craven said.

Transpower expects peak electricity demand to grow by about 12 per cent by 2010. A new line into Auckland could cost up to $500 million to build.

Local generation, from power stations at Glenbrook, Otahuhu and Southdown, can meet only around 25 per cent of Auckland's electricity demand. The rest has to come from stations around the country.

Without new investment, Transpower said, the upper North Island would run short of electricity during the morning and evening peak demand periods.

A commitment to more transmission lines into Auckland would affect any plans to build new power stations in the area. Some proposed stations could become uneconomic if Transpower could bring in more hydro-generated power from the south.