Transpower executive general manager of grid delivery Mark Ryall during a press conference at Whangārei District Council the day after a pylon collapsed near Gloravit leaving 88,000 electricity customers in Northland without power. Photo / NZME
Transpower executive general manager of grid delivery Mark Ryall during a press conference at Whangārei District Council the day after a pylon collapsed near Gloravit leaving 88,000 electricity customers in Northland without power. Photo / NZME
The pylon holding Transpower’s two 220-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines into Northland toppled over on a farm near Glorit, south of Wellsford, on June 20.
While it was already known that Omexon contractors doing routine maintenance had caused the pylon to fall when they removed too many nuts from the feet of the pylon, an official investigation by the Electricity Authority also found numerous failings by Transpower.
Releasing the investigation’s report at a press conference, Energy Minister Simeon Brown highlighted key findings, including that a Transpower senior engineer in 2021 had raised concerns about a “gap in the knowledge of maintenance crews” but the company did nothing.
The Electrical Authority investigation, led by lawyer Sarah Sinclair (at rear), found several key failures, including Transpower's overreliance on service providers to ensure that critical assets are maintained. Transpower has criticised the way Energy Minister Simeon Brown highlighted one of those concerns in particular. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Brown said: “Transpower failing to act on these opportunities has led to terrible consequences for the people of Northland but there is also evidence that the removal of all nuts from more than one tower leg was not a one-off event.”
“Our engineer raised issues about training for tower foundation coating [painting], which is work that is done at the completion of foundation work to provide corrosion protection. This suggestion did not pertain to any risk around nut removal.
“We have a strong health and safety culture at Transpower and I am confident that if they [the engineer] had any concerns over removal of nuts they would have escalated it as a health and safety concern through management.
“Because this was an issue about tower coatings, it is appropriate they referred this to a Grid Skills Technical Specialist. It was not a health and safety issue.
“Even if the suggestion had been adopted, it would not have changed the outcome in this instance, which resulted from Omexom’s crews being inadequately trained and improperly supervised and not following Omexom’s procedures.
“Transpower’s independent report into the incident made clear that the tower would not have fallen if the Omexom crew had followed Omexom’s procedures for this type of work.
“We have identified legitimate issues around training and we are already addressing these. And we have also begun strengthening our audit and assurance programme to ensure inadequately trained and supervised crews can’t work on our assets.”
Ryall said Transpower’s independent report identified the Omexom crew had taken the nuts off more than one leg of towers on up to four previous occasions. These were all in June before the Glorit Tower fell. No one was aware of this until Transpower’s investigator had completed the report.
Meanwhile, the company has confirmed a payment being discussed with Northland leaders was a goodwill one - not compensation.
Following the collapse, Transpower had acknowledged compensation could be available under the Consumer Guarantees Act, but it later cited current legislation that said it didn’t have to guarantee power supply.
The fallen power pylon near Glorit, south of Wellsford, which caused the full outage of power in Northland on June 20, this year. Photo /
Michael Craig
On Wednesday, NZ First minister Shane Jones demanded those responsible at Transpower be sent to the “knacker’s yard”. However, the minister responsible for State-Owned Enterprises Paul Goldsmith said he had confidence in Transpower’s board. He would not give his view on whether compensation was warranted as the company remained opposed to compensating affected residents and businesses.
Northchamber CEO Darryn Fisher said it was disappointing the report didn’t include specifics around changes to legislation that would enable New Zealanders to raise a class action against “an entity with such incompetence as this”. Such actions were currently too cost-prohibitive.
On Thursday, Transpower executive general manager for customer and external affairs Raewyn Moss said: “We have had a number of meetings with mayors and business leaders in the region exploring options for investing money into the community for the benefit of Northland”.
“This is similar to what we did in the Hawke’s Bay after Cyclone Gabrielle and is not compensation.
“We are continuing to work with groups in Northland on the final shape of that investment.”
Also on Thursday, Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo issued a media release as chair of the Northland Mayoral Forum. In it, he said: “What we need to see now is action on the recommendations that come from the Electrical Authority report. Northland deserves a reliable, resilient, future-proof power supply to safeguard our economy and the health of our residents. We also need to see financial restitution for our region, which suffered an estimated loss of up to $80m as a direct result of the power outage.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, much of which she spent court reporting. She is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.
