Critical electricity lines and substations
What are critical lines and substations?
Critical electricity lines and substations are essential for providing power to the key parts of our communities that provide social and economic wellbeing, and health and safety.
They’re deemed to be critical infrastructure that provides a resilient, robust and secure electricity supply across our region and are designated by Northpower and local councils in their District Plan.
This includes lines and substations:
- powering essential public services like hospitals, civil defence facilities and lifeline sites
- supplying large (1MW or more) industrial or commercial electricity consumers
- servicing 1,000 or more customers
- that are difficult to replace with an alternative electricity supply if they’re compromised
Critical electricity lines and substations have specific consenting requirements to ensure any proposed subdivision, building and major structure construction and trees planted doesn’t affect access and ability to maintain them.
Locating critical lines and substations
You can check the location of critical electricity lines and substations on the Whangārei District Plan and the Kaipara District Plan.
We’ll also advise if your proposed development is affected by critical electricity lines consenting requirements when lodging your application with us.