“Transpower’s tower fall and ensuing power outage in June has created heightened awareness of the resilience risk to Northland’s electricity network,” McCallum said.
“This package of initiatives is a step in the right direction to addressing that risk and moving the region forward.”
Part of the package includes a $1m fund established by Transpower and Omexom. The money will be managed by Northland Inc and allocated to resilience projects that will deliver long-term economic benefits for Northlanders, said Northland Inc chief executive Paul Linton.
“A panel of Northland community leaders, along with representatives of Transpower and Omexom, will select the initiatives and projects that will be funded. We are working through the final details and expect to be able to provide more information in the coming weeks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Transpower has already started working with local lines companies Top Energy and Northpower on the Regional Resilience and Reliability Plan for Northland, which is expected to be finished before the end of the year.
The regional strategy - touted as quickly increasing new energy supply for overseas areas - has been championed by the Northland Corporate Group, which represents the biggest companies in Te Tai Tokerau.
It will work in with a Renewable Energy Zone concept, which was first considered for Northland in 2022.
Despite little action on the zone, the region is already becoming a renewable energy hot spot, with projects including a 64ha solar farm built by Lodestone Energy near Kaitāia, New Zealand’s first battery energy storage site being built by Meridian Energy at Ruakākā and Meridian gaining consent to build a $200m solar farm next to the battery storage.
Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo, who is also chair of the Northland Mayoral Forum, said Northland is blessed with a number of natural resources that can play an important role for the region’s energy resilience and economic development.
“Northland is in a position where it could generate more than it needs and become an exporter of electricity to Auckland.”
MORE TO COME