Most recommendations in Northland tower collapse report completed

All 26 recommendations from the report into the collapse of a transmission tower near Glorit, Northland, on 20 June 2024, are now complete or in progress, the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (Authority) says.

After the collapse, the Authority was requested by the Minister for Energy to carry out a review under Section 18 of the Electricity Industry Act 2010. The event left 88,000 customers without power and cost the Northland region tens of millions of dollars.

“This was an incredibly disruptive event for the people of Northland,” says Authority Chief Executive Sarah Gillies. “All New Zealanders should have access to secure and resilient electricity. Significant work has now taken place which will improve the resilience, safety, and reliability of New Zealand’s electricity system.”

The report’s recommendations focused on strengthening regional resilience, processes, documentation, training, and industry regulation.

“Across the electricity sector a considerable amount of time and resources have been committed to implement these recommendations, leading to systemic changes,” said Gillies.

The report, released in September last year, found that multiple factors contributed to the transmission tower’s collapse. It emphasised that such a failure during routine maintenance should never occur.

Nineteen of the recommendations were for Transpower, and the Authority has worked closely with Transpower to ensure the work is completed.

“These recommendations were focused on improving resilience, processes for maintenance work and grid maintenance contracting arrangements and assurance processes,” said Gillies.

Service provider Omexom, whose maintenance crew were working on the tower when it collapsed, has also completed the three recommendations assigned to it which focused on reviews to strengthen training and site supervision.

The three recommendations not yet completed are being progressed.

The Authority is reviewing the value of lost load settings early in 2026, while the recommendation for it to review Part 6A of the Electricity Industry Participation Code has been superseded by a Cabinet decision in October 2024 which the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is progressing.

MBIE is also working on the recommendation to consider the Authority’s information-gathering powers to enable it to require information from non-participants.

Separate to the report and its recommendations, the Authority conducted a compliance investigation into the tower collapse and lodged a formal complaint with the independent Rulings Panel alleging a breach of the Code by Transpower.