Farmer revolt threatens Auckland power supply

John Sexton says talks on the access issue have been sought with Transpower but farmers have been stonewalled. Picture / Greg Bowker

More than 50 South Auckland farmers will refuse Transpower access to their properties this summer, beginning a new battle in the war between the power giant and the rural community.

Transpower last night threatened legal action if it was refused access.

Communications manager Chris Roberts said that, if access were refused, restoration of faulty lines would be put in jeopardy and long power cuts could be the result.

But Auckland Federated Farmers say that "unless access and easement agreements with annuities" can be agreed upon with Transpower their gates will remain shut to linesmen.

The dispute has the potential to spread. The Waikato branch of Federated Farmers, representing hundreds more property owners, meets next month to discuss similar action.

The row is over Transpower's planned $10 million uprating project in November, which will allow existing lines to carry higher loads. Crews will need access to properties to do the work.

The aim is to put more tension into the lines, allowing them to run "hotter".

The project is set to take place over the next two summers and covers hundreds of kilometres of lines, from Whakamaru to Otahuhu.

The landowners - who farm land throughout Otahuhu, Papakura, Bombay, Mangatawhiri and Maramarua - are frustrated that no compensation has been paid for the inconvenience of having the lines on their land.

Spokesman John Sexton said talks on the matter had been sought with Transpower over the past two years, but farmers had been stonewalled at every turn.

However, Mr Roberts said compensation for the use of electricity towers and lines was a done deal, settled in the 1950s.

"That's the problem," Mr Sexton said. "They've got their heads buried in the sand, in the 1950s.

"It's totally unjust, they treat landowners in such an abysmal manner."

Mr Roberts said Transpower had a legal right to access the properties under the Electricity Act, but Mr Sexton disagreed.

"They have legal rights to enter for maintenance work. What is in dispute is whether they have a legal right to uprate at this level, which has an injurious effect on the land."

Waikato Federated Farmers president Peter Buckley said that in some cases the line upgrade would involve taking the tops off hills and lifting towers or changing them around.

He could not predict whether his executive would follow the Auckland branch's lead, but it was a real possibility.

"Somewhere along the road it's all going to come to a head, whether we're talking duplexing [uprating] or the 400KV lines. I'd rather it came to a head sooner rather than later, so we can carry on our lives and give some certainty to landowners and Aucklanders.

"We don't want to see Auckland without power, but we do want fair and equitable compensation."

Mr Roberts said farmers had sometimes closed gates to workers in the past and police had been brought in.

Although the work was urgent, the grid operator said, the risk of blackouts over the winters of 2008 or 2009 would not increase because Huntly's 385MW combined gas cycle project was due to come on-stream next April.

However, Mr Roberts said a delay to the upgrade beyond 2007-08 would make it impossible to take the line down in the future, and therefore the work would never get done.

"It's about the system having enough spare capacity to take down the lines as the work gets done. If it isn't done the result will be a much tighter supply."

The project will help delay the need for giant pylons from Whakamaru to Otahuhu - another issue that is still to be resolved with hundreds of farmers.