Hon Judith Tizard Minister for Auckland Issues

27 June 2006

Auckland's power supply too vulnerable

Auckland Issues Minister Judith Tizard says Auckland's power supply is too vulnerable and work needs to be done to minimise the risk of any similar outages happening again.

The Minister welcomes Transpower's report on the Auckland outage on 12 June but says it raises further questions which will be addressed in the independent report commissioned by government.

The report found the outage was caused by the failure of 2 'D' shackles, last inspected in October 2003.

"This outage appears to be a maintenance issue rather than a grid failure. The report raises a number of questions around the maintenance programme.

"Auckland's power supply should not be this vulnerable. We need to minimise the risk of any similar outages happening again.

A list of additional questions raised by the Transpower report has been forwarded to Connell Wagner who are preparing an independent report to government.

"I look forward to receiving the independent report and I hope that it will answer these outstanding questions. The Government will then consider options for a way forward to secure Auckland's power supply."

The independent report is due on 6 July and will be considered by Cabinet before being released to the public.

"Finally I would like to acknowledge the work done by Transpower staff who on the day quickly analysed and repaired the outage in difficult circumstances with live lines".

The Transpower report is available at www.transpower.co.nz.

ENDS

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