Helicopter Maintenance Survey

Northpower is to conduct an extensive low level helicopter survey as part of an intensive lines network maintenance programme.

The aerial work is planned across Northpower’s entire 33,000 Volt powerlines network throughout Kaipara and Whangarei.

It began this morning and, weather dependent, will continue for much of this week.

Flights will cover 67km of lines in Kaipara and 212km of lines in Whangarei, says Northpower’s Network General Manager Graham Dawson.

“As we will be using thermal imaging equipment to detect any damage or deterioration of our lines which means at times that the helicopter will be flying as low as 50 metres,” says Mr Dawson.

“We obviously don’t want the low level flying to cause any problems to residents and farmers, so we want to hear from anyone concerned about their livestock or the effect from the helicopter downdraft.”

Mr Dawson says if residents want to know when the helicopter will be in their area, they can phone Northpower on 0800 667 847.

“Likewise, we can discuss any concerns they might have about the low level flying. The main thing is we get this job done as quickly as possible to minimise disturbance. We do an aerial survey every few years and it is quite a critical part of our maintenance scheduling to ensure reliability of power supply to our consumers.

“Keeping a close eye on network safety is also an important outcome from this work.

“On average we spend around $20 million a year maintaining our lines network and we don’t want to let that level of attention slip because it is important to keep what is essentially your network in good order,” says Mr Dawson.

ENDS

© Scoop Media