A temporary tower lies on a farm in Northland on 21 June 2024, as Transpower crews prepare to install it after a fallen pylon cut power to thousands of Northland properties. Photo: Transpower
Northland MP Grant McCallum is calling on Transpower to give the region's power users a year-long discount to compensate for last month's blackout.
McCallum said reducing transmission charges would go some way to making up for the losses Northlanders suffered when a pylon toppled on 20 June, cutting power to the entire region.
He described the outage, caused by contractors unbolting three of the pylon's four legs at once, as "an unbelievable event no one can quite get their head around".
"So far, they [Transpower] have shown little indication at all to give compensation ... I think a simple solution will be to give the people of Northland a discount on their transmission charges for a year, that means all power users, commercial and domestic, can benefit from it. That's what I think the people of Northland deserve."
In a letter to the national grid operator's acting chief executive, John Clarke, McCallum said he was disappointed Transpower appeared to have walked away from discussions about compensation.
Whatever the legal situation, McCallum said Transpower had "a moral duty" to those who had suffered financially as a result of the power cut.
Constituents had told him about losses ranging from $1200 to almost $500,000.
"Telling these people to rely on the insurance process is outrageous," McCallum wrote.
A transmission charge discount would also be much simpler than responding to a large number of detailed, individual compensation claims, he said.
A Transpower spokesman said the company had been in touch with McCallum to arrange a meeting, prior to his request for a Northland-wide power discount.
Northland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Darryn Fisher earlier told RNZ discussions about compensation - and repairing damage to Northland's image as a good place to do business - had been progressing well until negotiations suddenly went cold last week.
The chamber's roughly 200 members were told they would have to seek recompense through their insurance providers instead, Fisher said.