11 Feb 2025
Transpower has today started consultation on delivering another level of resilience at Redclyffe Substation in Hawke’s Bay, which was badly damaged almost exactly two years ago during Cyclone Gabrielle.
Transpower’s Executive General Manager Grid Development Matt Webb said, “After Cyclone Gabrielle, Transpower committed to investigate what actions could be taken to make the power supply to Hawke’s Bay more resilient.
“We have since completed several upgrades and improvements, with the final piece being ensuring our 220kV switchyard is strengthened against extreme weather events.
“In May last year, we announced that our preferred option was to rebuild the 220kV switchyard on the existing Redclyffe site. This decision was made after considering a range of different options and working in collaboration with local lines company Unison. Transpower and Unison then engaged with regional stakeholders on our preferred plan. We’re now consulting on the details surrounding this work.
Local lines company Unison has been working in collaboration with Transpower. Jason Larkin, Unison’s General Manager Commercial and Regulatory said, “Unison welcomes this important milestone in the Redclyffe rebuild, it’s a crucial step towards increasing the resilience of the electricity supply for customers in Hawke’s Bay.”
“Our proposed plans will mean that the Redclyffe substation will be flood resilient to a 1-in-450-year flooding event and will also be more earthquake resilient by meeting modern design and engineering standards,” Mr Webb said,
“Our work in 2024 developing this consultation took longer than we expected as our ground studies, or geotechnical assessment, showed that more engineering was going to be needed to make the site sufficiently earthquake resilient.
“The consultation documents explain why rebuilding on the site remains the preferred option as well as some detail on how we will improve the flood resilience with raised switchyard structures that provide “wet feet” protection for all critical equipment."
Transpower estimates this work will cost approximately $42 million. A project of this size requires Transpower to receive approval from the Commerce Commission. Once the community has had the opportunity to provide feedback through this consultation, Transpower will consider submissions and develop an application to submit to the Commerce Commission in mid-2025.
“The purpose of this consultation is to seek feedback on our analysis of the options in this final stage of our work to make this critical site more resilient,” Mr Webb said.
Notes to editors – work at Redclyffe substation since Cyclone Gabrielle
- We have completed interim upgrades to the 110 kV switchyard to make the equipment there more resilient to flooding.
- We have installed an interim 220 kV control room above the flood level to ensure that most of our critical control equipment is flood resilient. (The 33 kV switch room was already elevated and did not suffer flood impacts to equipment.)
- We have a new 220 kV/110 kV interconnecting transformer that has arrived on site and will be installed before winter 2025. The new 250 MVA transformer will add significantly to the interconnecting capacity at Redclyffe enabling more reliable delivery of electricity into the region. It will also be situated to meet 1-in-450-year flood protection standards.
The consultation runs from 11 February through to 11 March. Consultation documents can be found on the project page.
For further information please contact:
Transpower’s media phone on 021 195 8613 or at [email protected]