Sarah Gillies: Electricity Authority Chief Executive on Northland power outage

Energy Minister Simeon Brown wants appropriate accountability over a fallen electricity tower.  

Thousands of Northland residents experienced outages yesterday after a transmission tower toppled northwest of Auckland. 

The Electricity Authority says it's investigating and Simeon Brown's asked WorkSafe to do the same. 

Electricity Authority Chief Executive, Sarah Gillies, told Heather du Plessis-Allan “Consumers have a right to have confidence in their electricity supply.” 

Gillies said “We’re the regulator – and we’re independent.”  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Evening. There are a couple of investigations underway now to
figure out why a power pylon just fall over, knocking
out the power to all of Northland yesterday. Transpower's boss
this morning would not be drawn on what happened, but
the Energy Minister, Sime and Brown, later in the day
confirmed that yes, the Transpower crew was working on the
pilon at the time. The Electricity Authority is conducting one
of those investigations in the Chief Executive, Sarah Gillies, is

(00:22):
with us. Now, Hey, Sarah, Hi, what happened?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, that's exactly what we want to find out. So
you know, it's really important that we get into finding
out what happened here. Consumers have a right to have
confidence in their electricity supply and we need to know
what happened and give them answers.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Do you know what they were doing there? What was
the work they were actually doing.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I don't know the details of that, but that's part
of what we want to find out. We really just
need to understand exactly what occurred, and we want to
do that as quippy as possible so that we can
get answers.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
To what's the value in you guys, the electricity authority
doing an investigation of Transpower's already doing an investigation.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, we're the regulator and we're independent, so absolutely understand
that they would want to do their own investigation. But
we've got the ability to do that independent regulator investigation
into what happened. We're also really here on behalf of
consumers and so that's our job is to is to
help consumers have confidence in their electricity supply.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Do you have the power to force compensation or to
fine or to do anything like that.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
We've got a range of powers, so this review, this
is something that we can do that looks into exactly
what happened. We've also got other powers that relate to
understanding if there's been any breaches of the rules and
ultimately what the consequences would be if there has been.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
If you were to find that a Transpower crew was
working there and just under the bolts and the thing
fell over knocked out power to our whole region, what
powers would you have then to censure Transpower or punish them.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, it depends exactly on the circumstances, but we do
have powers that are quite broad, both in terms of
understanding what's occurred and in kind of the broader implication,
but also specifically if there has been a breach of
the rules, we've got powers there to enforce compliance with
the rules, and ultimately there are consequences for that. Right.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
So it doesn't sound like you've got the power to
find and you haven't got the power to force compo right.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh no, no, no, no, we do so through our compensation
or through our compliance processes. There is ultimately the ability
for there's an independent tribunal called the Rulings Panel, and
they would ultimately be able to make orders that could
include compensation.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
You can you only order compensation if there's been a
breach of the rules, or can you order compensation if
people have just been like unbelievably stupid.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, in our case, it has come down to breaches
of the rules that the powers that we've got. But
because we're doing this wider review, we've got the ability
to kind of get into exactly what's occurred and make
broader recommendations as well. So that's a big part of it.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Are you considering sabotage here?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I don't have any specifics on what might have occurred.
I think the important thing for us is to find
out exactly what's said and here where are commanded to
understand exactly what's occurred. We'll be asking all the questions
and making sure that we're getting out.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
How long is this investigation going to take?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, we want to move really quickly, So one of
the things we're going to do is to the investigation
in phases and that enables us to move really quickly
to get some answers early on, and then also balance
that we're doing a comprehensive piece of work as well.
So the first phase we'd be locking, we're still consuming
the scope in the terms of reference that we'd be locking.
Subject to that scope being confirmed, we'd be looking to

(03:31):
have something by the end of July.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Brilliant stuff. Hey, thank you very much, Sarah, appreciate it.
Sarah gaille CEO of the Electricity Authority. For more from
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