Work starts on removing high voltage transmission lines over Spotswood

Transpower is starting work soon on removing two overhead line sections and 16 transmission towers that stretch from the Omata Tank Farm through to Port Taranaki, and over the New Plymouth suburb of Spotswood.

These sections of line and towers are no longer needed due to an earlier project to remove Transpower’s substation at the Port and connect these two lines together just south of the Omata Tank Farm.  This connection has helped reinforce transmission supply into the Carrington St substation – now the key supply point for New Plymouth’s power supply.

The first part of the work is to remove the equipment currently attached to the wires (conductor).  Some of that work will be undertaken by helicopter, with a suspended worker underneath to detach the equipment.  In other places that will be done by ground teams accessing the line on ‘line trolleys’. 

Once all the conductor has been removed, attention will turn to the removal of the towers themselves. This will typically involve the use of large cranes to remove towers by sections.  For those towers with subsurface foundations, further removal work will be planned in cooperation with landowners and mana whenua.  Other than some traffic management, during times to access sites and remove tower sections or conductor, no other impact on the community is expected.  The works will be undertaken by Transpower’s contractor – Omexom (formerly Electrix).

Transpower’s Grid Delivery General Manager, Mark Ryall says that while most of the time Transpower is involved in putting in new transmission lines to meet new capacity, that’s not always the case.

“These lines were put in 50 years ago – at that stage there was a large 600 MW power station being built at the Port. That was decommissioned and removed some time ago, and with other changes in Powerco’s network we have been able to reduce our tower and line footprint.”

“However, with increases in demand through electrification of transport and process heat (like drying milk powder), and the need to connect much more generation to accommodate that demand, we can expect to be upgrading and adding to our footprint in other places in the future to meet the transmission needs of New Zealand,” he said.

Transpower’s project to remove the 16 towers is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

ENDS