Review highlights work ahead for struggling Otago lines company

Thursday, 1 November 2018

A linesman works on a power pole in Cromwell, part of a network owned by Aurora Energy.

A $400,000 review of ageing assets owned by a struggling lines company has highlighted areas of risk.

Earlier this year Aurora Energy enlisted Australian-based consultants WSP to conduct an independent state of the network report.

Michael Van Doornik from WSP at a media conference on Aurora Energy's assets.

The vulnerability of the network was highlighted after the Commerce Commission said the Dunedin City Council-owned company would be prosecuted for failing to meet standards due to under-investment.

That under-investment was again emphasised by Michael Van Doornik, of WSP Melbourne, at a media briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

According to its website, Aurora Energy owns the seventh largest electricity network in New Zealand, supplying customers in Dunedin, Central Otago and the Queenstown Lakes district.

Whistleblower Richard Healey raised concerns over the Dunedin-based lines company in 2016.

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Most of the assets were established in the 1950s-1970s and were coming to their 'end of life phase'.

While most of those assets posed a low-risk to the public, there were some exceptions including support structures (poles, cross-arms), protection systems and sub-station circuit breakers and transformers.

A significant proportion of relays, for example, were approaching end of life and half of them posed a risk of not operating as intended.

Former employer turned whistleblower Richard Healey went public over safety concerns two years ago.

Healey's colleague died in December 2010 after climbing a power pole that did not have a red 'do not climb' tag attached.

Doornik said 4 per cent of Dunedin poles (1264) and 0.4 per cent of poles in Central Otago (104) were rated in the red risk zone.

He noted the recent focus on pole inspections and remediations had begun to reduce the level of failure, but highlighted the 'emerging risk' of cross-arms – attached at the top of power poles.

Previous Aurora inspections failed to evaluate the risk of those cross arms effectively, and the company would follow WSP's example and use drones for inspections.

Glenn Coates, Aurora's asset management and planning general manager, said the report highlighted the network's risk including resilience issues related to liquefaction.

He reassured residents with a red-tagged pole in their suburban street would be addressed first, followed by those poles in less populated areas.

Aurora chief executive Richard Fletcher confirmed WSP's independent engineering review cost $400,000 and its full findings would be released next week.

Aurora split from Delta last year and signalled it would spend $748 million spend on new developments, and renewing and maintaining the existing network.

The company's network delivers electricity to 88,000 customers in Dunedin, Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes.

Aurora's 10-year plan includes a proposal to replace 10,000 poles, including 6000 over the next three years.