Transpower, a state-owned enterprise responsible for electric power transmission, has accepted the findings and recommendations from an independent investigation into the collapse of an electricity transmission tower at Glorit on June 20.
The company released the report, which confirmed that the incident occurred due to errors made by a service crew from Omexom.
The investigation revealed that the crew did not follow standard maintenance procedures, leading to the removal of all nuts from three of the tower’s four legs. This deviation from protocol caused the tower's collapse, a conclusion consistent with the initial findings reported by Transpower and Omexom on June 24.
John Clarke, acting chief executive of Transpower, apologised for the outage’s impact on the Northland community.
“We never like to see power cuts, and we apologise to the Northland community for the disruption caused to people’s lives and businesses,” he said. “We can’t undo what happened, but we can put in place improved measures to prevent anything like this happening again. We accept the findings and recommendations from this investigation and are already moving to address them.”
The report highlighted that Transpower’s specifications did not detail the exact procedures for removing nuts from tower legs, leaving service providers like Omexom to establish their processes, provided they ensured stability and safety.
The full investigation report and Transpower’s responses are available on the company’s website, along with additional resources such as a glossary and a profile of the investigator, Daniel Twigg.
Last month, Transpower said that it generally cannot guarantee an uninterrupted electricity supply and does not offer direct compensation avenues. However, under the Consumer Guarantees Act, compensation may be available for residential consumers through their electricity retailer, who will assess and process claims.
It advised business customers to consult their insurers regarding any claims related to the outage. The process and timeline for claims will vary depending on the insurers’ procedures. It has also instructed electricity retailers to handle residential claims and reimburse them accordingly at the end of each month.
Tim Robinson, president of the local business association NorthChamber, said businesses in the area lost approximately $40 million to $60 million due to the incident.
Last month, businesses started evaluating their options for insurance claims, with MWIS Lawyers assessing interest in a potential class action lawsuit.
