Northland tower collapse report released

Minister for Energy Simeon Brown today released the Electricity Authority’s report into the collapse of a Northland transmission tower on 20 June 2024 that left 88,000 customers without power and cost the region tens of millions of dollars.

The aim of the review was to understand what went wrong, and to identify gaps in the system that allowed such an event to occur. A system-wide approach was needed to prevent recurrence.

The report is not intended to apportion blame to individuals, but rather to understand the underlying causes at a company and system wide level to prevent recurrence, particularly focusing on responsibility for training and quality assurance.

The trades assistant who removed the nuts had been working at Omexom for less than three months, he was not properly trained or supervised, and was unable to recall what they were told to do in relation to nut removal on the day.

The Authority is undertaking a separate investigation into an alleged breach of the Code by Transpower as the grid owner, in relation to the event.

The Authority has appointed an investigator to investigate the alleged breach.

Once that investigation is concluded the investigator will make recommendations to the Authority, who will then decide whether to lay a complaint with the Rulings Panel.

The Rulings Panel has the power to make pecuniary penalty orders up to $2 million for a breach of the Code and can make compensation orders requiring an industry participant to pay a sum by way of compensation to any other person (under section 54 the Electricity Industry Act 2010 (Act)).

The Authority would benefit from wider information gathering powers, allowing us to require information from non-participants as well as participants under section 46 of the Act. As a regulator it’s important to be able to collect all relevant information. We have made a recommendation for MBIE to review section 46.