Tens of thousands of people were without power when the pylon fell over in June. Photo: Supplied / Top Energy
There is no evidence anyone has been negligent and should be fired for the June power outage in Northland, Transpower says.
Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones wants heads to roll after a report into the outage found it was entirely avoidable.
But Transpower's executive general manager of grid delivery Mark Ryall told Morning Report they there was nothing in it's own review, nor the Electricity Authority report released Wednesday, to justify that.
"I have not seen anything where someone has been negligent or should be fired for this situation.
"That light switch comes on 99.999 percent of the time, somethings gone horribly wrong in this one job."
Ryall laid the blame with contractor Omexom and said they were still working through things with them.
The work order indicated an experienced supervisor and two other crew members would attend the job.
Instead two trainees were sent, without the needed direct supervision, Ryall said.
"That is one of the failings that lead to this event."
The team was still employed by Omexom, but not working on Transpower assets.
Ryall also disputed the Electricity Authority report which revealed a senior engineer warned Transpower in 2021 about a "knowledge gap" among maintenance crews working on pylon foundations - but nothing was done about it.
He said the issue raised regarded the quality of coating finishes, not removing too many nuts - which is what caused the pylon to fall.
The matter wasn't raised above middle management, but Ryall believed it would have been if it was about the nuts.
"It would have been safety issue, it would have been escalated, I have confidence that it would have been escalated rapidly within the business."
Concerns not raised
About 88,000 people were left without power earlier this year when a pylon crashed to the ground.
The report, released by the Electricity Authority, revealed that electricity provider Transpower didn't act when concerns were raised three years ago.
It was three months since the widespread power cut wrought havoc across Northland, and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones wants someone gone for what happened.
"Transpower, the new chief executive officer, should find out who failed and send them to the knackers yard," he said.
But not everyone wanted revenge.
Megan Edwardson, the owner of the Hair by ME salon in Whangārei, said one person alone was not to blame.
"No, I don't think they should lose their job," she said
"I don't think it should fall on that person, that one individual, I feel like it sits higher than that, I feel like it's a higher issue."
A report last month said an inexperienced and inadequately supervised worker removed nuts from three of the four legs of the pylon, compromising its stability and causing it to rupture and fall.
It was not the first time nuts and washers were removed from more than one leg of a pylon at once.
Wednesday's report found Transpower failed to act when staff raised concerns about training in 2021.
Edwardson was disappointed Transpower did not do anything about the concerns.
"To have had concerns raised and then it be totally disregarded, and then not taking responsibility for the event that occurred because of those concerns, it's a bit of a slap in the face really," said Edwardson.
"Where else are you going to get your power from? You're can't boycott it."
Transpower and Omexom statements
In a statement to RNZ, Transpower said its training team reviewed the problems raised by staff three years ago, and decided not to act on them.
It said the trainees involved in the pylon crash in June had not completed the required training then in place.
Transpower said this meant that even if more training had been added as suggested, it would not have made a difference.
It said it was taking steps to ensure inadequately trained and supervised crews couldn't work on its assets.
Responding to Shane Jones' call to fire someone, Transpower says it's focusing on making sure a tower never falls again.
In an earlier statement, Omexom managing director Mornez Green apologised and said the company had been doing the work for decades without problems.
"Our standard practice was not adhered to - this cannot happen ever again," he said.
"No work should ever be done that compromises tower stability."
Can't happen again
Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo said that should be a priority.
"I do not want this episode to ever happen again, and I don't want it happening to any other region," he said.
"What we need right now, is we need people taking responsibility for their actions, we need action being done, and we need Northland being prepared and resilient."
Cocurullo said it had been a tough time for the region.
"There are some businesses which are hurting, there are some businesses which haven't been affected at all," said Cocurullo.
"Some of the businesses that are hurting are hurting not just because of the power outage, they're also hurting because of the Brynderwyns being shut this year,
"This has made a major impact onto Northland as a region."
Edwardson wanted a formal apology from Transpower.
"I think they need to reach out to all of their customers and actually front up to it and say 'hey look, we made a mistake, this is what we've done, it shouldn't happen again but in the same sense everybody's human'."
The report estimated the economic loss for Northland ranged between $37.5m and $80m.
Transpower said it was not required to pay compensation.
