Auckland CBD Power Failure Inquiry
EnergyEnergy Minister Max Bradford today announced the terms of reference and membership of the three person Ministerial Inquiry into the Auckland CBD power failure.
"The Ministerial Inquiry is to report back to me by the end of June on what happened, why and lessons for the future," Mr Bradford said.
The Inquiry will be headed by Hugh Rennie QC.
The two other Inquiry members are:
Don Sollitt, managing director and deputy chairman of PDL Holdings, the largest electrical and plastic products manufacturing company in New Zealand.
Dr Keith Turner, an energy consultant with a doctorate in electrical engineering. He was Managing Director, DesignPower in 1991-2 and General Manager, Generation, ECNZ from 1993 to 1995.
Mr Bradford said the Inquiry's terms of reference included consideration of organisational issues including governance arrangements and accountability issues, as well as technical factors, risk management and contingency planning.
"As a first step the Inquiry has been asked to commission and publish a report by engineering experts on the technical causes of the cable failures," Mr Bradford said. "This will provide a factual background for public submissions on the wider issues."
The Inquiry has been modelled on the 1992 Electricity Shortage Review Committee which worked very effectively and reported on time. Like the 1992 Committee it will not have formal statutory powers.
"I have been assured in writing by Mercury Energy and the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust that they will cooperate fully with the Inquiry," Mr Bradford
said.
The Inquiry is not expected to commence its formal proceedings until full security of power supply has been re-established in Auckland.
"Restoring full power at a high security level is the top priority. The Government does not want the attention of Mercury Energy to be diverted right now from achieving this objective", Mr Bradford said.
"I am confident that the inquiry will provide valuable insights and lessons for the future. Power failures of this magnitude are totally unacceptable.
"The Government sees the Inquiry as an opportunity to learn what went wrong and to make sure that such failures do not happen again.
Terms of Reference for the Ministerial Inquiry Into Aspects of the Auckland Power Supply Failure Background on Inquiry Members
12 March 1998
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE MINISTERIAL INQUIRY INTO ASPECTS OF THE AUCKLAND POWER SUPPLY FAILURE
The Government considers that it is important to carry out a review of the recent failures of Mercury Energy Ltd?s cables to the Auckland CBD in order to establish what happened, why and lessons for the future. To this end the Government has established a Ministerial Inquiry to publicly inquire into and report to the Minister of Energy before the end of June 1998 on the following questions:
1.What caused the power supply, and in particular, the power cables into the central business district of Auckland, to fail? Factors to be considered include:
Organisational issues, including all aspects of governance structures, accountability arrangements and customer contracts
Risk management and contingency planning
Technical factors, including network design and quality, operating standards and practices, maintenance standards and asset management policy and practices, and the weather
Any other relevant factors
2.In light of the cable failure, to recommend changes to ensure that security risks relating to Mercury Energy?s distribution lines are managed efficiently. Any recommendations should take into account the costs and benefits of any changes, including the costs of alternative measures to avoid or insure against outages
In undertaking the review the Inquiry shall:
a.<-- a -->as soon as possible publish a report prepared by technical experts commissioned by the Inquiry on the technical factors in question 1 above;
b.<-- b -->call for public submissions following publication of the technical report;
c.<-- c -->not determine issues related to liability, breach of law, or compensation
d.<-- d -->decide its own procedure.
12 March 1998
BACKGROUND ON INQUIRY MEMBERS
Hugh Rennie CBE, QC
Mr Rennie is a practicing barrister (QC) in commercial and insolvency law and specialist practice in medical, media and aviation law, who lives and works in Wellington.
He is a director of a number of companies encompassing manufacturing, banking, and the media.
He has had wide experience with the operation of a number of educational, cultural, communication and social trusts, as well as medical-related foundations, and a particular interest in communication and the arts.
Don Sollitt
Mr Sollitt is Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of PDL Holdings Limited, a publicly listed Christchurch company, which manufactures and exports electrical and plastic products.
Mr Sollitt has an electrical engineering background and lives in Christchurch. He has been a Council member of the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association for over a decade and has been involved in many trade missions emanating from the Canterbury area to South East Asia and the USA as well as being involved in setting up all the off-shore operations for PDL.
He has extensive experience in company management and operation.
Dr Keith Turner
Dr Turner has a PhD in electrical engineering and has 27 years' experience within New Zealand's electricity industry.
He was appointed Director of Power Development at the New Zealand Electricity Department in 1983; Corporate Development Manager at ECNZ when it was formed in 1987; Managing Director, DesignPower, with the Transpower Establishment Board in 1990 following completion of the Stanford Senior Executive programme; General Manager, Generation, at ECNZ at the beginning of 1993. In 1995 he participated in the establishment of Contact Energy during the split of ECNZ.
Dr Turner established his own specialist energy consulting practice in 1996 and was appointed as a Market Surveillance committee member when the New Zealand electricity market began trading in October 1996.
He was appointed to the Electricity Industry Restructuring Task Force set up by the Government in 1988 to develop a blueprint for electricity industry structural reform.