Northland power ‘‘lags behind’’
Far North leaders say an expansion to the Ngawha power station to curb frequent regional outages can’t come soon enough.
The latest blackout was caused by a large scrub fire at Springfield, south of Whangarei, which resulted in Transpower having to ‘‘de-energise’’ high-voltage feeder lines to allow helicopters carrying monsoon buckets to safely fight the blaze.
The February 5 incident cut power to more than 30,000 Northland homes from Whangarei to Cape Reinga for around two hours. It comes two months after insulators on power pylons were shot at, cutting power to the entire region for up to 12 hours and having a huge economic impact.
Kaikohe community leader Mike Shaw says it is ridiculous to have a power station 7km out of town and issues further south cutting the power off.
‘‘It is costing local businesses millions. We are generating power locally but we, the locals, are not benefiting from it at all.’’
The Ngawha Power Station generates power via the geothermal field which is fed into Top Energy’s network in the Far North and then connected to the national grid via the sub-station near Kaikohe.
The Far North energy demand is around 70MW - with the Ngawha Power Station currently producing 25MW. The station’s power generation capacity is planned to expand to 50MW by 2020 and 75MW by 2026.
Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw says until the size of the Ngawha power station is increased it can only operate when connected to the national grid, which Transpower operates.
‘‘When the supply from Transpower is lost,,the generators are automatically shut down.’’
Top Energy is also exploring other options to increase the resilience of its network during outages, including diesel generators, Shaw says.
Northland MP Winston Peters says Northland has been lagging behind in power development for decades.
‘‘Power cuts in Northland are regular events and should not be occurring on this scale.’’
Far North mayor John Carter says he’d rather an upgrade was ‘‘done yesterday’’.
‘‘But like it or not that’s how it is, at least we have an answer. It’s just going to take a bit of time to get there.’’