Government and Transpower work to avert crisis

Transpower has warned of power blackouts if it cannot complete a $1.5 billion grid by 2010.

Grid development manager Guy Waipara warned an industry conference in Wellington that without the upgrade "people's lights will start going out".

The timetable to get the programme through the Resource Management Act consent process was tight and the results of a delay would be pretty severe, he said.

The programme has three main parts - building bigger transmission lines in the central North Island into Auckland, building bigger lines from the Waitaki system into Christchurch and increasing the capacity of the Cook Strait link.

Energy Minister Pete Hodgson said the Government was well aware of the problems facing Transpower and was working with it to overcome them.

He told National Radio yesterday that the Electricity Commission had the power to ensure upgrades were made when there was a need.

It would assess whether there was a need for transmission upgrades in the form of thick wires, increased generation, or a mix of both.

"Because Transpower is owned by the Government, shareholding ministers will, if the case is put forward and the need is there, inject money into the company," he said.

"There is a difficult issue with planning law, because [powerlines] are long and stringy and they have to cut across a whole lot of different districts.

"That I think is a challenge for Transpower. They have said to us they would like planning law to be reviewed; we are reviewing planning law."

That review would be complete within a year, well before Transpower was due to apply for consents, he said.

Electricity Networks Association chief executive Alan Jenkins said many hurdles had to be leapt before an upgrade could be made.

There was barely enough time to get approval for the upgrades, let alone do the work needed.

Transpower spokesman Chris Roberts said Transpower had asked the Government for "a single board of inquiry" to handle the two North Island and South Island projects rather than having to make applications to several local authorities.

A separate problem was Transpower's shock warnings last week of possible blackouts in the South Island during peak power use because the lines do not have enough capacity to cope with peak loads.

Only six weeks ago it was warning those power cuts might happen next winter, not this winter.

Transpower's new chief executive, Ralph Craven, said consumers should not be unduly concerned because the risk of power shortages this winter was being managed and was likely to be small.

- NZPA