Removal of too many nuts during routine maintenance cause of transmission tower fall which affected Northland power
supply
Omexom New Zealand is a leading provider of engineering, construction and maintenance services to asset owners in the
utility, industrial, commercial, resources, and infrastructure sector. Omexom has more than 25 years’ experience in
building and maintaining transmission lines and structures for Transpower.
On Thursday 20 June, around 11 am, a transmission tower in Glorit experienced a failure, resulting in an outage. Omexom
promptly activated its emergency response to restore power to what became a very complex site. By 2.30 pm yesterday the
power to the 220kV simplex circuit was restored via a newly constructed temporary structure.
Mornez Green, Managing Director of Omexom New Zealand, apologised to all people affected by this incident which is
unprecedented.
“Our thoughts are with the families and businesses across Northland and the residents on the Vector network that were
affected by the power outage, as well as our staff that were involved.
As part of routine maintenance, the base plate and nuts securing the tower to the foundation were removed, cleaned, and
treated by Omexom staff. During this work too many nuts were removed, and the tower fell over on its side,” said Mr
Green.
“There will be various other investigations outside of Omexom and I can assure you we will be open and transparent with
all parties involved and continue to support our people through this difficult time.
We will be working closely with all parties to understand why this happened and ensure that it doesn’t happen again,”
said Mr Green.