AWARDS FINALIST: Genesis – Ngā Ara | Transformational education, training, and employment pathways
8 Aug 2024IMAGE: Kauri Papanui-Enoka (centre) with scaffolding mentors Kereama Taaka-Te Kaute (left) and Tassie Maxwell. Genesis Energy's Ngā Ara programme focuses on attracting, nurturing, and engaging rangatahi (young people) in education, study, and career pathways.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Powerco – Connecting communities now and in the future
6 Aug 2024Powerco is using technology and fresh thinking to help improve the resilience, reliability, and safety of the gas and electricity services it provides to more than 900,000 Kiwis. It sees its role as keeping communities on its network connected - now and in the future - and to help the country make the most of its transition to renewable energy.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Lodestone Energy – Kohirā: Construction of Kaitaia Solar Farm
5 Aug 2024Lodestone Energy's $60 million Kohirā solar farm near Kaitaia has provided important technical and commercial lessons for the rest of the firm's development pipeline. The 23.7 MW project, completed in January 2024, was the country's first utility-scale solar development and the first solar installation to bid into the electricity market. It features a number of value-adding innovations.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Moonis Vegdani – Counties Energy
2 Aug 2024Moonis Vegdani, chief strategy and transformation officer at Counties Energy, has achieved significant success in a short time. After joining the business in 2019 as head of technology and product, he was promoted to group chief digital officer in 2021, and to his current role a year later. The company says that in this role - in which he manages a team of 28 - he has shored-up the organisation's internal capabilities in preparation for strategic changes within the sector and unlocked new venture opportunities.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Contact
1 Aug 2024Contact has gained more than 30,000 customer connections since March 2023 on the back of new plans designed to shift usage into off-peak periods. The company, which last year also widened its product suite to include mobile phones, says about one in four of its residential customers is now on one of its time-of-use 'Good Plans.' The Good Plans offer free or discount power during off-peak periods to promote energy-saving habits.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Mercury
29 Jul 2024Last year was a huge year for Mercury's retail business, as a team of up to 300 worked to integrate the people, processes, systems and offers of the existing business with those of the newly acquired Trustpower retail business. The aim of the integration project was to leverage the strengths of the respective offerings and provide greater benefits for Mercury's enlarged customer base.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Kāinga Ora – Renewable Energy Programme and Multiple Trading Trial
26 Jul 2024Kāinga Ora, New Zealand's largest social housing provider, introduced new technology and trading systems as part of its programme to generate more solar electricity for its tenants. Backed by the Māori and Public Housing Renewable Energy Fund, the organisation aimed to install rooftop solar panels on more than 630 of its properties nationwide.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Methanex – Investing in new distillation technology to reduce emissions
25 Jul 2024An upgrade of Methanex's two distillation columns at its Motunui site will save up to 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. The complex project, completed in late 2023, involved redesigning and replacing 88 distillation trays in the near 30-year-old columns to improve control of the flow of gas and liquid within them.
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: OMV NZ – Empowering holistic health and well-being
24 Jul 2024When Covid-19 arrived in Aotearoa, OMV New Zealand needed to rapidly change the way it cared for its people. It already had offshore medicals in place, but these met a corporate standard rather than addressing individual needs. The instigation of in-depth health examinations prior to workers heading into isolation bubbles provided greater health and wellbeing insights than ever before. OMV could see the benefits of this approach in its people's morale and in early detection of major health risks or injuries. Te Whare Tapa Whā
Read more →
AWARDS FINALIST: Infratec – New Zealand's first utility-scale battery energy storage system online
23 Jul 2024Infratec's Rotohiko project at Huntly delivered a range of firsts for the industry. The 35 MWh system, connected to WEL Networks' 33 kV network, was completed in December, and can store enough energy to supply about 2000 homes. It was developed in close consultation with system operator Transpower and was designed to participate in the wholesale market and to assist with system stability as both an interruptible load customer and provider of generator reserve.
Read more →