KEY POINTS:
Civic leaders are calling for urgent work to strengthen the national grid north of Auckland, saying their communities need a secure power supply and the economic benefits of local energy generation.
North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said he was outraged by the Electricity Commission's draft decision that there are cheaper alternatives to Transpower's $480 million proposal to run a new 200kv cable across the Harbour Bridge from Penrose to Albany.
North Shore and Northland rely on a line carried on pylons through West Auckland to the Albany substation.
"North Shore was identified as being at great risk of a lengthy blackout if something was to happen to the Waitakere line," said Mr Williams. "We are one of the few communities in New Zealand with only a single source of power."
Mr Williams said that since 2002, the city council had worked with Transpower on designation of a route, and ducting for a cable was installed as part of the construction of the Northern Busway.
Three Northland councils have written to Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee opposing the commission's view that the cable should wait for a decision on the proposed gas-fired station near Helensville in the next few years.
Kaipara Mayor Neil Tiller said a single transmission line would still be inadequate even if the several proposals for generating power north of Auckland went ahead.
"It's not just a case of Northland needs more power," he said.
"These energy projects are stifled because they need to send their surplus product into the national grid.
"They will produce 10 times more than Northland needs but with the single line there is not the capacity to send power south," said Mr Tiller.
Transpower had forecast that demand for electricity in the North Auckland and Northland area could rise by as much as 21 per cent over the next six years.
Last year, Genesis Energy said its proposed station near Helensville would reduce the critical dependence of the north isthmus on supply imported from the south.
