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The electricity grid operator Transpower and network lines companies need to plan for severe weather events like Cyclone Gabrielle, the Commerce Commission says.
The commission said the impacts on households and business customers from electricity outages following Cyclone Gabrielle highlighted the need for a 'new normal' in asset management planning and investment strategies.
Commissioner Vhari McWha said extreme weather events reinforced the importance of resilience planning, while keeping costs reasonable.
Transpower and the 29 local electricity lines companies, that the commission monitors, needed to ensure their future plans took account of climate change and network resilience, McWha said.
"Planning for severe weather events should now be front of mind in every part of the electricity networks and supply chain that we rely on every day," she said.
"Our review around these outages on the grid has found that Transpower demonstrated good industry practice - and shouldn't be penalised for these interruptions and outages that were beyond its reasonable control, but we can't ignore the timely reminder from this weather event that left thousands of Kiwi families and businesses without power for an extended period of time."
There would need to be improvements, McWha said.
A key focus in the commission's upcoming review of Transpower's forecast expenditure for 2025-2030 would be on how it was identifying network risks and cost-efficient mitigations, she said.
"We expect Transpower to look hard at resilience planning and its needs now and into the future and put forward a well-justified proposal for us to assess," she said.
"And this applies more broadly across all the lines companies, which are equally important to keeping the power on for New Zealanders."
