HVDC Link Upgrade
Transpower have notified us of their intention to plan a major capex project to upgrade its HVDC submarine cables and to increase the cable capacities.
This potential investment has been identified by Transpower to replace the existing three cables since they have reached the end of its design life, and at the same time to add a fourth cable to accommodate higher power transfer between the North and South Islands.
On 22 May 2025, Transpower and the Commission agreed to a consultation programme, and timeframes for the submission and consideration of major capex proposal (MCP).
On 15 December 2025, we published copies of Transpower's proposal documents for the HVDC link upgrade MCP.
On 1 April 2026, we published our draft decision on Transpower’s HVDC Stage 1 MCP proposal. These documents can be found under the 'Documents' tab, below.
We want to hear from you
We welcome views on our draft decision on Transpower’s HVDC Stage 1 MCP.
Submissions are due by 4pm Wednesday 29 April 2026, and cross-submissions are due by 4pm Wednesday 13 May 2026.
Submissions can be emailed to infrastructure.regulation@comcom.govt.nz using the subject line ‘Submission on Transpower’s HVDC Stage 1 MCP Draft decision’. Please provide both a format suitable for word processing (such as a Microsoft Word document), as well as a ‘locked’ format (such as a PDF) for publication on our website.