Puketoi wind farm: Mercury Energy asks to stop road along Puketoi Range

Mercury Energy first applied for consent for a wind farm something like this one on the Puketoi Range in 2012.

An electricity supplier working on a proposed wind farm has approached Tararua District Council to stop a paper road.

Mercury Energy originally applied for consent for the proposed wind farm on the Puketoi Range in 2012. The consent included construction, operation and maintenance of a wind farm on the Puketoi Range.

The proposal included 53 wind turbines and a substation.

Following three appeals, the Environment Court signed off a consent order in 2013 but construction hadn’t started by the time a lapse extension was applied for in November 2021.

Last month, Mercury made a presentation to TDC requesting to stop the road along the top of the Puketoi Range.

Mercury would undertake pre-consultation with key stakeholders on the proposal.

In an overview, it was stated that following engineering assessments of the site and further development of the engineering plans, Mercury had identified a requirement to relocate some of the wind turbines potentially onto the paper road.

This would create complications for the wind farm development, as moving a utility asset into public space was against the purpose of the road.

In the original consent, the council granted Mercury licence to occupy for the wind farm.

In its presentation, Mercury presented a case for changing from a licence to occupy to stop the road.

Councillors requested clarification on a recommendation in the report to the council at its October meeting, wanting to know if the council would have time to discuss the issue once feedback had come back from consultation.

An amendment was requested to the recommendation and it was decided the council would consider the proposal subject to pre-consultation feedback.