Alpine Energy

Transpower owns and operates the national electricity network in New Zealand. At certain substations like Albury, the electricity is transferred from the national to the local network. We call those substations grid exit points, short GXPs.

Transpower typically undertakes annual maintenance at grid exit points like the substation in Albury to ensure the substation continues to provide a high level of reliability and service to those consumers supplied by it, and to keep it safe to operate.

Over the last few years, Transpower has not been able to obtain these annual outages in Albury. This is why in 2023 a more extensive outage is needed so Transpower can catch up on work. Typically the maintenance ‘season’ for this is in the late Spring/Summer/early Autumn, as this is the time that access and weather is more favourable, and electricity demand is lower.

Transpower is undertaking the following maintenance this year:

- installation of bird deterrents
- removal of any birds nests
- testing and maintenance of equipment within the substation (transformers, disconnectors, feeders)

In the future, people supplied by Albury can expect an annual day long outage. Occasionally more complex project work may require longer periods of outage and Transpower will work with Alpine Energy to minimise impact on consumers.

Although these outages/maintenance are not within Alpine Energy’s control, we wanted to collaborate with Transpower to keep consumers informed throughout the process.

Please remember to treat lines as live at all times.