Editorial: Shared blame for power farce

OPINION: The farcical events of Monday show that when an irresistible force meets an immovable object, the resulting power blackout can cripple large parts of the country and generate a gale of political hot air.

In Monday's case the irresistible force was national grid operator Transpower, and the immovable object was Waikato farmer Steve Meier. Mr Meier and Transpower have been in dispute over access to his land for five years, and as a result the national grid company had failed to carry out maintenance on lines crossing his property. The chief losers from the events were 50,000 electricity customers in the North Island.

The farmer has a knack for generating publicity and last time Transpower arrived to maintain the lines, staff were put off by the presence of a newspaper reporter.

His fight is of interest to farmers and Federated Farmers has been pushing the issue of compensation for those unlucky enough to have the national grid built across their land. Mr Meier is part of a group of Waikato landowners who want compensation for complying with Transpower's easement rights.

Farmers have a point. Farming around pylons can be difficult and there is a level of annoyance at having to provide access for electricity workers.

Transpower has the full force of the law behind it but staff have been unable to pacify Mr Meier, despite years of trying.

Mr Meier and Transpower should share the blame equally for the events of Monday.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this battle, their actions caused huge inconvenience to thousands and could have had catastrophic consequences. Actions causing random outages in large cities – with traffic lights going out and railway signals failing – are downright dangerous.

It seems ridiculous that one man's intransigence could cause such huge disruption. On the other hand, it is unthinkable that Transpower has allowed the situation to deteriorate to the point it has.

There is a question of the greater good at stake. When farmers or householders – many in South Canterbury are in this situation – buy properties with pylons on them or lines over them, they do so at their own risk.

They would be naive to think it did not have some impact on their property rights.Transpower must be given reasonable access to maintain the network and any reasonable landowner with a sense of responsibility would give such access.

Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee took the opportunity to blame the previous Government for under-investing in the network, an excuse he won't be able to use for much longer. All of which has left bystanders musing why commonsense is not so common sometimes.

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