8 November 2005

Transpower's resource consent application

Auckland City Council is currently processing a resource consent application from Transpower to increase the capacity running through its Henderson to Otahuhu 220kV line.

Councillor Glenda Fryer, chairperson of Auckland City's Planning and Regulatory Committee, says the city is dealing with the application with all the care and diligence it deserves.

"We are working with Transpower to ensure our growing city gets the power it needs. We are also balancing infrastructure requirements with other considerations, such as possible impacts on our residents and ratepayers. We have clear statutory responsibilities imposed on us by the Resource Management and Local Government acts," says Councillor Fryer.

"We recognise this is an important issue for the city and officers are progressing the application as a matter of urgency."

Transpower's application is for a two-year period. Within this two-year period, they are seeking to increase the current on the line only in times of forced outages. This would be for a maximum of three times a year and for a maximum of 20 minutes for each of these three events.

Officers at Auckland City have advised Transpower that they believe a resource consent application for beyond this two-year period must be notified.

"We are waiting for Transpower to submit that second separate application, which we expect will request no limits on the frequency or duration of increasing the current running through the line. This will be publicly notified as soon as possible after we receive it," says Ms Fryer.

Auckland City received the current application on Wednesday 26 October. Auckland City's Planning Fixtures Committee last week appointed four commissioners to determine Transpower's current application. These commissioners will decide whether the application will be notified or non-notified. The reporting planner is currently writing their report, which will then be sent to the commissioners.

ENDS

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