Managing New Zealand’s transmission network distributing electricity around the country

Challenge

Transpower owns and operates the National Grid in New Zealand and manages the flow of electricity across it’s transmission network consisting of 170 substations, 25,000 transmission towers and more than 11,000 kilometres of lines that run the length and breadth of the country. Transpower is responsible for managing its infrastructure, which involves significant investment to ensure current and future energy demands are met through building new infrastructure as well as ongoing maintenance and upgrades of the existing network. Technical advice from industry experts is required to help navigate current and future regulatory requirements, consenting strategies and environmental obligations.

Solution

SLR has been a trusted advisor to Transpower for over 10 years, and our multidisciplinary project team has grown to comprise a suite of technical specialist services, including Contaminated Land and Asbestos Management, Environmental Compliance, Planning, Hydrogeology and Ecology.

We work extensively with Transpower throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand on complex projects to deliver better outcomes for ongoing maintenance and upgrades. We have advised Transpower on the sustainable management of its infrastructure and contributed to contaminated land and transmission tower environmental management strategies. We have also advised on more sustainable management of surplus soils and ecological impacts.

We are also actively supporting Transpower with their programme of works to maintain and upgrade existing infrastructure to meet increasing demands on the network from consented and proposed wind farms, solar farms and battery storage systems.

Our One Team approach ensures collaboration between SLR’s multidisciplinary project team and the various stakeholders involved (including regulators, local community and contractors).We assist Transpower with stakeholder engagement by explaining complex technical information that can be easily understood.

As a long-standing client, we have supported Transpower on a broad range of projects, some examples include: 

• Contaminated Land Investigations (to support regulatory functions, soil management, soil handling and human health risk assessment);
• Management and pre-demolition asbestos surveyors of built environment infrastructure;
• Third-party asbestos monitoring during asbestos removal and demolition;
• Assessment of potential impact to the environment for electrical distribution infrastructure;
• Environmental compliance monitoring;
• Planning assessments, including outline plan of works, consent applications and assessment of environmental effects;
• Detailed hydrogeological monitoring and modelling to support assessment of proposed development work; and
• Freshwater and terrestrial ecological assessments.

Impact

Our approach to managing surplus soils has led to more soil being diverted from landfill and reused, which has also led to significant cost savings for Transpower. Identifying and assessing freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems has enabled works to be managed near sensitive receptors (e.g. wetlands and lakes).