The chairman of the Central Otago District Council hearings panel, John Lane, who is also a community board member and has been involved in the negotiations, was confident an agreement between the residents, power company and board could be reached.
"Basically, we have come to an agreement, I just have not seen anything in writing yet.
"In terms of what the arrangement will involve from the community board, that is not clear at this stage.
"We are looking at a number of options."
Mr Lane said yesterday the matter had not yet come before a formal meeting of the board.
He said it would be on the agenda of the next meeting on September 2.
"A formal resolution will be passed in due course."
The power poles run 18.4km from a 2.6mW run-of-river hydro scheme on the Talla Burn to the Ettrick sub-station on Clutha Rd.
For most of the journey they are on council road reserve, although some go across private property.
Talla Burn Generation negotiated access to that land with individual farmers.
The lines pass through Millers Flat underground, a condition of council consent, and a group of residents to the north of the town wants the wires to continue underground 900m past the town, so their views and property values were not affected.
At issue had been who would pay the cost of the extra distance the lines would travel underground.
Residents' spokesman Peter Cubitt said his group would reluctantly pay for some of the cost but would not pay it all.
The group petitioned the council to have the lines put underground past their properties, which led to the community board getting involved.
Talla Burn Generation project manager Paul Wilson said at this stage the spat had not affected progress putting up the poles, with "six or seven" left to put up from the 220 required.
Work on putting the wires through Millers Flat has yet to begin.
However, Mr Wilson was confident everything would be in place in time to generate power by the end of August.
When operational, the scheme will meet the needs of about 1300 houses.
