Last week we saw another wicked storm. And it was yet another weather event where trees caused havoc on the power lines.
Many in the South Island lost power.
Some people in the PowerNet region (thats the deep south) have had no power for over a week. When the storm struck, they had thousands lose power and 95% of those outages were caused by trees.
In the Mainpower region in Canterbury, 8000 connections were lost after the windstorm, with around 90% of the outages caused by trees and vegetation. A significant portion of this damage was caused by ‘fall zone’ trees where lines companies don't have powers to trim or cut.
And still, we wait for outdated tree laws to change. We need new laws that:
- Allow us better access to cut high-risk trees that can take out power to communities.
- Share the cost of maintaining trees. Last year, lines companies spent over $67 million managing vegetation. And that money all gets passed onto consumers' power bills.
- Differentiate between public tree owners and forestry tree owners. Forestry should have more of an onus to maintain trees that can pose a threat to everyone's power supply.
It's simple really, we need a more common-sense approach. One that means fewer power outages and cheaper power bills.