Tens of thousands of people were without power when the pylon fell over in June.
Photo: Supplied / Top Energy

The associate energy minister wants heads to roll after a report into the Northland power outage found it was entirely avoidable.

About 88,000 people were left without power earlier this year when a pylon crashed to the ground.

The report, released by the Electricity Authority, revealed that electricity provider Transpower didn’t act when concerns were raised three years ago.

It was three months since the widespread power cut wrought havoc across Northland, and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones wants someone gone for what happened.

“Transpower, the new chief executive officer, should find out who failed and send them to the knackers yard,” he said.

But not everyone wanted revenge.

Megan Edwardson, the owner of the Hair by ME salon in Whangārei, said one person alone was not to blame.

“No, I don’t think they should lose their job,” she said

“I don’t think it should fall on that person, that one individual, I feel like it sits higher than that, I feel like it’s a higher issue.”

A report last month said an inexperienced and inadequately supervised worker removed nuts from three of the four legs of the pylon, compromising its stability and causing it to rupture and fall.

It was not the first time nuts and washers were removed from more than one leg of a pylon at once.

Wednesday’s report found Transpower failed to act when staff raised concerns about training in 2021.

Edwardson was disappointed Transpower did not do anything about the concerns.

“To have had concerns raised and then it be totally disregarded, and then not taking responsibility for the event that occurred because of those concerns, it’s a bit of a slap in the face really,” said Edwardson.

“Where else are you going to get your power from? You’re can’t boycott it.”

In a statement to RNZ, Transpower said its training team reviewed the problems raised by staff three years ago, and decided not to act on them.

It said the trainees involved in the pylon crash in June had not completed the required training then in place.

Transpower said this meant that even if more training had been added as suggested, it would not have made a difference.

It said it was taking steps to ensure inadequately trained and supervised crews couldn’t work on its assets.

Responding to Shane Jones’ call to fire someone, Transpower says it’s focusing on making sure a tower never falls again.

Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo said that should be a priority.

“I do not want this episode to ever happen again, and I don’t want it happening to any other region,” he said.

“What we need right now, is we need people taking responsibility for their actions, we need action being done, and we need Northland being prepared and resilient.”

Cocurullo said it had been a tough time for the region.

“There are some businesses which are hurting, there are some businesses which haven’t been affected at all,” said Cocurullo.

“Some of the businesses that are hurting are hurting not just because of the power outage, they’re also hurting because of the Brynderwyns being shut this year,

“This has made a major impact onto Northland as a region.”

Edwardson wanted a formal apology from Transpower.

“I think they need to reach out to all of their customers and actually front up to it and say ‘hey look, we made a mistake, this is what we’ve done, it shouldn’t happen again but in the same sense everybody’s human’.”

The report estimated the economic loss for Northland ranged between $37.5m and $80m.

Transpower said it was not required to pay compensation.