Chair appointed for review into Northland power outage

The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko has appointed Sarah Sinclair as independent chair of its review into the Northland power outage after a transmission tower fell on 20 June.

Sinclair is chair of law firm MinterEllisonRuddWatts and is on the board of the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga.

The Authority was requested by Minister for Energy Simeon Brown to conduct a review under Section 18 of the Electricity Industry Act 2010 after a transmission tower fell, cutting power to consumers in the region.

The scope of the review is to understand and explain the cause of the event, the response to it and lessons that can be learnt.

The review has begun gathering and assessing information it requested from electricity retailers, lines companies and Transpower.

The review’s final report must be provided to the Minister for Energy by 13 September 2024.

About the Authority's review into the Northland outage