Top Energy: Think deep, think about what’s under your feet

Far North power company Top Energy is urging people who are building, digging, trenching, fencing or undertaking engineering works this summer to consider the possibility of underground power cables crossing their work sites.

It’s encouraging people to take advantage of a free service through which it will locate Top Energy cables around any given work site.

“We’re laying an increasing amount of underground cable and, although these routes are marked clearly, the risk is that people could potentially put digger blades, drills or poles through these high-voltage lines and injure or even kill themselves,” said Top Energy operations manager Tony Smallman.

Smallman wants builders to ‘think deep’, too, and to check for cables before building.

“It’s illegal to place a building over our buried cables,” he said. “We can cut through a concrete slab to reach them but if there’s a house sitting on that slab it’s a whole different ball game.”

People can access the location service for Top Energy cables by calling the company’s help-line on 0800-TOPENERGY (0800-867363).

It’s important to note that the company can only commit to identifying buried Top Energy cables. It has no way of knowing what other buried cables or pipework might exist in any given area.

“We want to be totally up-front about this. It’s important that people working on any piece of land understand exactly what they’re working over,” Smallman said. “We are just one of the resources they should be using to get the full picture they need.”

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