Electricity distribution company Aurora Energy has found a new site for its proposed Hawea Flat substation.
The Dunedin City Council-owned company has applied to the Queenstown Lakes District Council for land use consent for a site in Camp Hill Rd, 500m west of the Hawea River.
The substation on the site would not be visible to recreational users of the river.
Aurora's application to construct a substation on 1.17ha of land on the east bank of the river near the Camp Hill Rd bridge drew opposition from nearly 50 kayakers, mountain bikers and Hawea Flat residents at a notice of requirement hearing in July.
Three Hawea Flat farmers supported the proposal.
At the hearing, landscape architect Anne Steven, acting for two kayaking organisations, said the substation would detract from the ambience of the river corridor. She called for Aurora to find an alternative site.
Hearing commissioner Jane Taylor later recommended that the substation not proceed because of its adverse effects on the rural and river landscape.
Mitchell Partnerships Ltd environmental consultant Claire Hunter, acting for Aurora, said yesterday the company had not abandoned its initial proposal.
However, it was likely to do so if it gained consent for a substation on its new site.
In correspondence to the council, Ms Hunter said Aurora's new proposal was to subdivide a 45.5ha piece of land in Camp Hill Rd and build a substation on part of it.
''The subject site has been identified as meeting all of the necessary technical and logistical constraints and also substantially reduces the adverse effects on landscape, visual amenity and recreational values,'' Ms Hunter said in her letter to the council.
The proposal includes the construction, operation and maintenance of a new substation, 1.8km of new 66kV transmission lines to the new substation, a new 11kV line across Camp Hill Bridge, a switchyard building, transformers, support structures, cables, walls and fences.
The substation is needed to meet the demands of increased dairy farming and residential development in the Hawea Flat and Lake Hawea areas.
