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National grid operator Transpower is buying up large tracts of land in the Waikato in anticipation of its plans to upgrade the Upper North Island grid being approved.
Details of the land purchases emerged in evidence at a marathon hearing into Transpower's plans to run giant electricity pylons through Waikato.
The Resource Management Act Board of Inquiry in Hamilton began yesterday, and is expected to take five to six months.
The state-owned enterprise, which runs the national electricity grid, plans to upgrade the Upper North Island grid with a 400KV electricity transmission line from Whakamaru to South Auckland.
The proposal will be endorsed over the next 10 weeks by Transpower advocates, but it has met stiff opposition from environmentalists, farmers and lifestyle block owners.
Although the plans have not been approved, Transpower has spent millions buying properties affected by the proposed route.
Spokeswoman Rebecca Wilson said the company had spent about $140 million buying 71 properties and more purchases were quite likely.
Transpower has also spent about $25 million on its investigations into the viability of the project and about $6 million on the board of inquiry.
But the company's "new focus" was on acquiring easements, or the strip of land which the pylons sit on.
It has spent $4 million on easement acquisition and has an allocated $110 million to buy more.
Ms Wilson said it was not Transpower's role to become a landowner. The company intended to sell the lands it had bought but with the easements applied.
"We still have a little way to go but our interest is in the easements going forward," she said.
The news of the purchases came as a surprise to New Era Energy vice-chairman, Bob McQueen, an outspoken critic of Transpower's plans.
"It's highly unethical but it seems to be legal," he said.
"We feel they're using their bottomless pockets of money to buy out the opposition."
Mr McQueen questioned why the Government was not supporting the interests of "the little guy".
"We feel there's no real mechanism for people to take care of us and it's hard to believe there are government agencies like the Ministry of Environment who are supporting this."
Transpower's legal team yesterday presented the first of 1244 submissions which have been made to the board.
Of these, 62 have lodged evidence and 248 wish to be heard.
Transpower's lawyer, Stephen Kos QC, argued for the proposed $683 million upgrade by saying an adequate power supply for Auckland would be non-existent by 2013 if the upgrade was not done.
"Auckland has the fastest-growing demand for power, and Waikato and areas north of Auckland should not be lost sight of either," he said.
