Transpower backs Government over cause of blackout

Transpower has moved to dampen talk that the Resource Management Act is to blame for Auckland's power blackout - and in the process proven itself an unlikely ally for the Government.

As the political fallout from Monday's embarrassing power failure continued yesterday, the Government sought to strongly defend its record on infrastructure.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said national grid operator Transpower had been investing an average of $300 million a year in its system since Labour came into Government.

She argued that was six times the amount that was spent on average under the last National Government.

The Government has been under pressure to come up with answers since much of Auckland was plunged into chaos on Monday when electricity supply was cut for several hours.

Senior Government figures have questioned whether poor maintenance by Transpower was to blame, while Opposition MPs have zeroed in on the RMA as reason for the outage.

Transpower emerged as an unlikely ally for the Government yesterday when it was revealed that the grid operator contacted the Beehive to confirm that it hadn't told anyone that it blamed the RMA for the blackout.

The Prime Minister used the statement during question time in Parliament to pour cold water on continued suggestions from Opposition MPs that the controversial planning law was at the heart of the grid problem.

But Transpower spokesman Chris Roberts yesterday said that the grid operator did have some concerns about how the RMA was applied by local authorities.

In a case highlighted by the National Party yesterday and confirmed by Transpower, it has taken more than two years for the grid operator to receive consents for minor line upgrade work in Auckland.

The application to the Auckland City Council related to an upgrade of lines between substations at Otahuhu and Henderson, which didn't require any new towers or any increase in voltage. The process for a permanent consent still had not been completed, although Mr Roberts yesterday said that a temporary two-year consent was granted due to the "urgency" of the work.

"Without upgrading that line the power supply to North Shore and Northland was under threat," Mr Roberts said.

Transpower wanted to see more consistency in the way that different councils applied the RMA, he said.

Acting Energy Minister Trevor Mallard last night said that, if the Government needed to spend more money to fix whatever caused the blackout in Auckland, it would.