Otago customers and ratepayers are likely to pick up some of the $720 million bill for upgrading the region's electricity infrastructure, including repairing or replacing at least 14,000 power poles.
More expensive power bills are expected to greet customers to cover Aurora Energy's costs but won't come into effect until 2020, subject to the Commerce Commission's approval.
The Dunedin City Council, which owns Aurora Energy, will also be affected as the company is expected to have lower dividends for the next three years - meaning rates could rise for property owners.
The plan comes after a lines company manager quit his job to go public over the state of New Zealand's power poles.
Richard Healey, a former business development manager at Delta, spoke to Story in 2016 about the run-down state of the electricity network in Dunedin, photos showing evidence of rotten and unstable poles.
He said the issue was "a common source of topic around the lunch table with colleagues [about] how have people not been injured".
The announcement is expected to bring in jobs to the region, but the planned work may also cause power cuts and more expensive power bills.
"Many of Aurora Energy's network assets date back more than 50 years, so this programme will see ageing assets upgraded and replaced with modern equipment designed to keep pace with demand and ensure the resilience of the network," chairman Steve Thompson said.
"This will make it likely that Aurora Energy will continue to be above existing regulated reliability thresholds for a time, but we know the end result will be worth it."
Last year, Mr Healey also revealed a random sample of the conditions of power poles showed 99 percent of poles didn't have appropriate warning tags.
His concerns were also echoed by other industry workers.
Aurora Energy supplies electricity to more than 87,000 homes across Otago.
Newshub.
