January 31, 2007

Electricity Commission decision is wrong

The Electricity Commission released an interim decision today that they will be approving Transpower’s revised grid upgrade proposal to build a new transmission line of 70 metre pylons from Auckland to Whakamaru.

“This decision is a giant step backwards in ensuring Auckland’s security of supply” says Bob McQueen, a spokesman for the New Era Energy group opposed to Transpower’s proposal. “There are cheaper and better alternatives to ensuring the security of electricity supply to Auckland, and the Electricity Commission appears to have been inappropriately influenced to approve this proposal, rather than following the guidelines for its decision-making laid down by law”.

All of New Zealand’s electricity customers, including major industrial users outside Auckland, will wind up paying much more on their power bills for the billion dollar cost of this white elephant proposal, which will not bring a single kilowatt of new generation capacity into Auckland to ensure its future electricity needs.

“What the Electricity Commission has failed to do, perhaps under ‘think big’ political influence from the Government, is to fairly weigh the cost of this proposal against much cheaper and less disruptive alternatives, such as quickly upgrading the existing transmission lines into Auckland. The real solution to security of supply of electricity to Auckland is to quickly upgrade existing lines, and then fast track current generation proposals by Contact, Genesis and others to build new generation capacity in or north of Auckland.”

The decision of the Electricity Commission can be challenged through a judicial review, which could examine whether the Commission executed its duties according to the laws and rules that govern its decision making processes.

If this Electricity Commission decision becomes final, the Transpower proposal still needs to obtain approval through resource management processes, and there is much that will be revealed in that process about the EMF dangers of this giant line, and whether this proposal is the best from an environmental perspective. Those hearings are expected to begin mid-year, and is likely to be vigorously opposed by many parties.

“This is a disappointing decision, but not the end of the battle”, says McQueen. “We too want to see a secure and economic solution for the supply of electricity to Auckland, but the Transpower proposal is an expensive and obtrusive white elephant that will do nothing for security of supply. We will battle on!”

ENDS