The implications of erecting additional Transmissions Lines in New Assignment

The implications of erecting additional Transmissions Lines in New Zealand by Transporter - Assignment Example The act took effect from the year 2011. The NZ government has authority to review the electricity pricing every five years. The government authorized Transpower to carry out the business to improve on the efficiency of power supply in NZ. Revenue collection by Transpower has control by the government for it not to exceed Maximum Allowance Revenue (MAR) (Sankaran, 2006). Transpower Company, however, negotiates with the NZ government for it to finance its operations including expansion of the national grid. The electricity company used its outstanding capital proposal as one of strategies to seek for the government approval to its revenue collection plan. The national grid of New Zealand This refers to the NZ main transmission line for electricity. The grid, owned by Transpower New Zealand Limited covers 11,803 kilometers carrying high voltage lines. The distribution of electricity takes place through 178 substations built by Transpower at different strategic locations all over the cou ntry. The main source of electricity in NZ is hydroelectric. The generating stations lie along large lakes and rivers in the southern region of NZ. The sitting of the stations depends on water availability and the head of water. Reaction turbines and impulse turbines perform well in power generation using water head (Sankaran, 2006). In NZ, most of power demand is in the Northern Island. This means that power transmission over a long distance is crucial hence the necessity of the grid. The grid, therefore, runs across Cook Strait, through the two Islands. Setting out a grid over such a long distance is a costly investment and; therefore, NZ commercial commission has to work in collaboration with the company. After negotiations, between NZ and Transpower, planning of grid expansion and upgrading of the necessary infrastructure took place. The project is to cost $5 billion over the duration of 10 years (Iyer, 2010). Typical power supply system Large generating station Step up transfor mer- Super grid Step down transformer-Grid substation Step down transformer- Grid transmission line (grid switching substation) Primary distribution- for heavy industries Step down transformer- high voltage sub station Step down transformer- for local distribution A map showing National Electricity transmission grid in NZ Source: Best, 2012 History The first hydroelectric power station in NZ was in Bullendale, which lie in Otago. The main purpose of the plant was to provide power at the phoenix-mining centre located about two miles away from the station. This was back in the year 1885. A transmission line linking the generation point and the mining site was necessary making the first ever power grid in the country. The development of other discoveries requiring electricity led to construction of more transmission lines with the first principal grid constructed between 1913 and 1914. The supply voltage in the first transmission lines was 3.3 kv but, as the transmission distance incre ased, transmission voltage increased (Sankaran, 2006). New Zealand has divided electricity business in various stages and assigned each stage to different companies. The stages include, authorized generators, distributors which include the electricity lines companies, retailers who sell the power to consumers, and transmission companies in this case the Transpower. Transpower, therefore, deal with high voltages