Powernet Plant Visit March Tuesday 23rd 2004
The Chamber of Commerce’s Business After 5 on the 23 March was held at the PowerNet offices, 251 Racecourse Road, Invercargill. A brief outline of the ownership, business structure and scale of the PowerNet operation was delivered by Martin Walton before getting on a bus and heading over to the control room. Here, members were shown the control panels mapping out the transmission lines all over Southland and Otago. The control room is manned 24 hours, seven days a week. The introduction of a call centre messaging system has reduced the time taken to relay information to customers personally. When you ring through a fault, the call centre will automatically tell you the area where a fault has occurred and the estimated time power will be restored. If the customer has further information to deliver, the call will go through to one of the staff on duty.
An ongoing problem for PowerNet is the felling and trimming of trees connecting with powerlines. Government regulations introduced at the start of the year with regard to the problem of trees and powerlines will mean PowerNet budgeting an extra half million dollars for implementation. Government has now given clear guidelines on who exactly is responsible for keeping trees trimmed away from the powerlines. The regulations say that if a line company identifies a tree as being a potential problem, they have to provide the first trim free of charge. From thereafter the responsibility falls to the tree owner. Another aspect of the new regulations is the “no interest” clause, where tree owners can declare they have no interest in a tree which needs trimming. In that case, responsibility for the tree and all subsequent costs of trimming or felling then pass to the line company. The new regulations have been introduced after a spate of electrocutions caused by children climbing trees and accessing or coming into contact with power lines.
Keeping consumers happy as well as complying with Government red tape means the PowerNet team are constantly kept on their toes, striving towards delivering better service and product for the commercial business as well as residential consumers.
Chamber of Commerce would like to thank Martin, Ingrid Penfold, Roger Paterson, Kana Shanmuganathan, Graeme Webby, Jim Dawson, Alaister Marshall and Greg Buzzard who gave their time in organising and relaying information to the members attending the BA5.
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