The job of keeping New Zealand switched on

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 19

The job of keeping New Zealand switched on

With the demand for electricity increasing each year, the job of extending and maintaining power generation and transmission is continual. The transmission lines are the most visible reminder of this endeavour, as they stride across the country carrying up to 220,000 volts. More than 13,000 km of transmission lines snake across the land, carrying electricity from 37 stations to about 61 electrical supply authorities. The Ministry of Energy’s Electricity Division is responsible for ensuring that this natural resource — with its power stations, transmission lines, and sub-stations — is extended and kept in top working order. To do this the division often needs to encroach on private property. Under the Electricity Act, 1968, it is legally entitled to survey and build transmission lines without buying any of the land crossed.

The division’s first duty was to ensure the efficient

and economic development of Jhe national power system, said the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard, but it was also obliged to do everything possible to minimise the effect of the lines. The Government is also bound to pay compensation for any loss or damage to private property caused during the installation or maintenance of transmission lines. The selection of transmission line routes takes time. After selecting several tentative routes, the Electricity Division seeks the views of regional planning and local authorities.

Once deemed acceptable by those parties, the division approaches the owners of any property that may be affected, and asks for permission to enter the property to survey the proposed line. At this stage, Mr Tizard said, if a conflict of interest was apparent, between landowners as a group and the environmental or planning organisations, the division

might review all alternative routes. Before any construction can proceed the Electricity Division must have Government approval, said Mr Tizard. During the building of the line as much care as possible is taken to minimise interference with farm bridges and roads, drainage and irrigation systems, water supply and other facilities. But damage to crop and pastures and interference with stock management were at times inevitable, said Mr Tizard. Compensation, under the Public Works Act, 1981, is paid for such damages or losses that cannot be made good or have not been rectified.

Once built, the transmission lines are subject to regular maintenance. Consultation between landowners and the Electricity Division must be maintained so that mutually satisfactory arrangements can be made for this work.