Transpower and its contractor Omexom have agreed to pay $1 million towards projects benefiting Northland following the collapse of a power pylon earlier this year. Photo: Supplied / Kawakawa Electrical Ltd
Transpower and its contractor Omexom will make a $1 million payment to projects benefiting Northland following the collapse of a power pylon earlier this year.
The announcement was made in Whangārei on Wednesday, following a long campaign by business leaders and Northland MP Grant McCallum for compensation for local businesses.
McCallum said Transpower was not obliged to pay compensation to power users, so he described the fund as a "goodwill payment".
The MP said the payment did not come close to the "inexcusable" losses suffered by Northland businesses - estimates vary from $37.5m to $80m - but there was no guarantee of power supply and Transpower was not legally obliged to pay compensation.
"Is it enough? Does it compensate businesses that have lost [money]? No, it does not. But I felt it was important to get some acknowledgment from Transpower of the harm that was caused to Northland and its reputation."
From left, Northland MP Grant McCallum, Transpower's acting chief executive John Clarke, and Mayor Vince Cocurrulo at Wednesday's announcement in Whangārei. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
McCallum said it was important the fund be used to benefit all of Northland, because the effects of the power outage were felt region-wide.
The payment did not stop any businesses trying to seek compensation, for example, through class action.
Transpower acting chief executive John Clarke used Wednesday's announcement to reiterate his apology to the people of Northland - "they've been through a lot in the past few years" - and his determination it would never happen again.
Clarke said he believed the $1m sum - $500,000 each from Transpower and Omexom - was an "appropriate contribution" to help Northland with some of the challenges it faced, and allow projects that would improve economic outcomes.
The company was also committed to building a more resilient energy future for Northland, he said.
Other measures announced on Wednesday were the development of plans for improving the reliability of Northland's power supply, and for unlocking the region's renewable energy potential.
Clarke said the Regional Resilience and Reliability Plan would be developed by Transpower working with local lines companies Top Energy and Northpower.
It would identify practical options for increasing the resilience of electricity transmission and distribution networks in Northland, and was expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Such strategies had worked well overseas, where they had led to quick increases in regional energy supplies.
Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo, who also chairs the Northland Mayoral Forum, said the region was blessed with natural resources that could be used to generate renewable electricity.
"New generation from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal energy can play an important role for Northland's energy resilience and for its economic development. Northland is in a position where it could generate more than it needs and become an exporter of electricity to Auckland," he said.
The Far North is already a net exporter of energy thanks to a geothermal power station at Ngāwhā, near Kaikohe, and New Zealand's largest solar farm, near Kaitāia.
Just last month Meridian announced plans for an even larger solar farm, and a battery storage facility, at Ruakākā, south of Whangārei.
Cocurullo commended Transpower for fronting up and acknowledging the outage's effects on Northland.
"But we'll be very very thankful if this never happens again," he said.
The $1m fund will be managed by regional development agency Northland Inc and allocated to "resilience initiatives and projects that will deliver long-term economic benefits for the people and businesses of Northland".
Northland Inc chief executive Paul Linton said a panel of Northland community leaders, along with Transpower and Omexom representatives, would decide which projects received funding.
More details would be revealed in coming weeks, he said.
McCallum said an example of a project with Northland-wide benefits that could be funded was the knowledge and education hub planned in the former council offices at Forum North.
The pylon toppled on 20 June when inadequately trained and unsupervised Omexom workers unbolted three of four legs at once on a pylon north of Auckland.
The resulting outage affected 88,000 Northland homes and businesses, with the region's biggest power users - timber mills, dairy factories and a cement plant - forced to halt production for several days.
Many hospitality businesses also suffered significant losses when they had to throw out food that could not be kept refrigerated.
