South Waikato Powerco National Grid Connection goes live after 10 years

The project connects Powerco's Putāruru Substation (pictured) with Transpower’s Arapuni Substation. Photo / Powerco

Powerco’s biggest project ever, the South Waikato National Grid Connection, is live.

The $43 million and 110-kilovolt electricity connection between Transpower’s Arapuni Substation and Powerco’s Putāruru Substation has been over 10 years in the making and is now powering over 11,500 homes and businesses in the region.

Construction started at the end of 2021 and involved the installation of 76 overhead structures and underground cable sections at either end of the connection. Powerco’s substation also underwent an upgrade to enable the connection to terminate there.

Powerco chief executive James Kilty says the new connection is an asset to the community which will help to decarbonise and provide “resilience of supply” for the long term.

“It is both adaptation and mitigation in one hit,” Kilty says.

The new connection means local communities will remain connected when the single Transpower transmission line they used to rely on experiences a fault or is undergoing maintenance.

A map of the location of the connection. Graphic / Powerco

Alongside the new connection, a new 33kV cable linking the Putāruru and Tīrau substations and upgrades at the Matamata and Walton Road substations have also been completed as part of Powerco’s $80m investment in the South Waikato.

South Waikato District Council, iwi and local landowners were involved in the selection of the route and placement of poles, with some parts of the line having been built across private farmland.

Powerco celebrated the completion of the project at Mangakaretū Marae with the local community last Friday, and marked the commissioning of the connection by planting a kōwhai tree.

To find out more about the project, visit Powerco’s website.