Contact Energy Ltd

Kia ora, Talofa, Bula, Nǐ hǎo, Namaste – these greetings are in just some of the languages you’ll hear in our three contact centres across Levin, Dunedin and Wellington.    Aotearoa is made up of a diverse group of people, and so too are our customers. We believe it’s important our customers can access the information they need in their first language to help feel informed, connected and empowered.     Many of our more than 200 Customer Service Representatives working in our contact centres are multilingual, speaking te reo Māori, Samoan and Hindi (to name just a few languages!). We also have the ability to support customers whose first language is not English by quickly accessing a translator and conferencing them into a customer call. This means we can support our customers in up to 300 different languages.     So, no matter what language our customers speak, we’ve got them covered.    Happy Tuvaluan Language Week -  Vaiaso o te Gana Tuvalu 🌸 #TuvaluLanguageWeek #VaiasooTeGanaTuvalu #UpholdYourLanguage #LanguageIsIdentity

Battery Banter: A lot has happened in a short time preparing for our new 100 megawatt battery at Glenbrook. The site has been cleared and our earthworks and civil contractor, Hick Bros Civil Construction Ltd, have begun levelling works of the main battery foundation area, construction of the temporary erosion and sediment control pond, and set up the site car park and laydown area. Our site office is now also set up! Check out the video below 👇 Once up and running, currently scheduled for March 2026, it will be the country's newest large-scale battery, the closest to the largest city, and the first Tesla Megapack 2 XL system in Aotearoa New Zealand. The battery will provide enough electricity to meet peak demand for 44,000 homes for over two hours – helping to keep Kiwis warm over the winter. ⚡

Engaging with people, building positive relationships, and supporting each other are key to successfully building a new power station says Kevin. As the Health Safety Wellbeing Supervisor at Te Huka 3, his focus is the team’s physical and mental wellbeing. Kevin has been working on the new geothermal power station since ground was broken on site in August 2022.  He describes his role as influencing people to do their job safely and effectively and he enjoys supporting team members and contractors to reach key milestones in the project.   “There can be big challenges in this type of job, but that also makes the rewards all the more enjoyable. It’s all about celebrating the wins – big or small”, says Kevin. He explains there’s a lot of hard mahi involved and it is a high-pressure, high-risk environment, but everyone leans in if someone needs a hand. “The team is always willing to step in if things start to get hard. “Each person’s wellbeing needs are unique. What fills up one person’s wellbeing cup is likely to be really different to someone else. We try to take time out of our busy schedules to connect with one another. There’s a diverse group of people working on Te Huka 3, so it’s great to be able to learn about people’s different backgrounds and beliefs,” says Kevin. Like other members of the team, Kevin’s dance card is pretty full and he’ll move onto another project once Te Huka 3 is up and running at the end of the year. He believes it’s important for everyone involved in projects to reflect on how far they have come and to be incredibly proud of the work they’ve done “Everyone is passionate about doing a good job, and getting the job done safely. They’re great people to work with.” Kevin is all about connecting with others, bringing them together and working as a community, which ties in with the spirit of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week. Noho ora mai. #MHAWNZ

This week our CEO Mike Fuge sat down to talk with Helen Matterson for the ‘Shared Lunch’ podcast hosted by Sharesies. Mike talks about Contact’s proposed acquisition of renewable energy generation company Manawa Energy and provides a picture of what a combined portfolio of energy assets would look like. Click on the links below to listen/watch: 🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gX3Gm-w2 🎧 Apple: https://lnkd.in/g_Y_6mWy 📺 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gyXXWF9z

Roxburgh Roundup: How are things tracking with our Roxburgh turbine upgrade? Here’s a quick update 💡 We’ve removed and dismantled the old turbine (images 1 and 2), and after receiving the first of four new turbines from Voith Hydro, we prepared and inspected all the components before starting the installation. Each component must be aligned to the existing equipment to ensure the unit operates as designed. Before installing the new turbine components, we carried out some maintenance on the scroll case and embedded components. Next, we will be installing the new turbine runner which also comes with new wicket gates, headcover, operating ring and servomotors. Scroll case? Wicket gates? In a nutshell, our Roxburgh (and Clyde) hydroelectric power station generates electricity by releasing water from the dam into the penstocks (image 3 and 4) which then passes around the scroll case (a snail shell shaped pipe that guides the water from the penstock to the wicket gates) before spinning the turbine. There are 20 wicket gates which control the amount of water that enters the turbine. The headcover (image 5) holds everything in place, whilst the operating ring and servomotors move the wicket gates. Once the new turbine is installed and ready to start spinning, the team will run commissioning tests followed by performance checks. This ensures the new turbine components are safe to operate on the NZ electricity grid. Here’s a few stats to illustrate the work involved: ⚡ 1 scroll case and turbine per generating unit ⚡ Each unit generates 40 MW ⚡ Each scroll case is located 43 metres below lake level ⚡ Each penstock is 5.5 meters in diameter ⚡ The turbine runner weighs 28.5 tonnes ⚡ A coupling bolt that holds the runner shaft to the generator can weigh up to 30kg and requires a hydraulic spanner to bolt into place. Kirk Pritchard John Clark

As part of our journey towards net zero energy generation emissions by 2035, our Stratford thermal power station in Taranaki recently took part in an innovative trial conducted by Kiwi company Captivate Technology which aims to have positive impacts on our environment and industry.  For several weeks in June, Captivate trialed a metal organic framework technology called MUF-16 on the Stratford Peaker Plant GT21 gas turbine. MUF-16 basically acts like a sponge, soaking up carbon dioxide (CO2) that is emitted out of the turbine, which would otherwise go into the atmosphere.  Once captured and cleaned, the CO2 can then be used in many ways such as for fuel, fertilizer, or keeping medical supplies cool during transportation. It’s an exciting opportunity as this technology would reduce waste emissions at our thermal sites and would help with a domestic supply of CO2. Following the trial demonstrating that the new technology can successfully capture CO2, we are looking to work with Captivate on further trials.  Captivate is a deep-tech start-up company based in New Zealand. They are currently scaling up their patented technology to remove CO2 from industrial emissions and we’re pleased to be supporting them. The images below show the Stratford GT21 peaker plant and the CO2 test rig.

Last night we celebrated with friends and colleagues at the New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. These annual awards acknowledge achievement across our country’s energy sector and we were thrilled to take home the Wellbeing Award for our skin health programme. The judges said “The outcomes Contact can attribute to the programme are unarguable and wide-ranging. The judges really liked how the initiative that was born from field operations well-being concerns was expanded across the organisation and achieved equal outcomes of cancers detected and removed with office staff and referrals from other business areas.” We were also finalists in the Energy Retailer of the Year and Community Initiative of the Year; and Tim Edmonds, head of advisory at Simply Energy, was a finalist for Young Energy Professional of the Year. A huge thanks to our customers, stakeholders and the communities where we operate. Jan Bibby Mark Green Jane Cummings Chelsea Langman Skin Aware nib Group

Today we celebrated the start of construction of the Kōwhai Park Solar Farm at Christchurch Airport. We were joined by the Minister for Energy Hon Simeon Brown, plus other key stakeholders for a sod-turning ceremony on the solar farm site. The 168MWp solar farm will have around 300,000 panels span 230 hectares and will be one of New Zealand’s largest solar farms. Once operational, it will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 36,000 homes. Construction is starting in late 2024 and expected to be complete in early 2026. Thanks to our friends at Lightsource bp and Christchurch International Airport Limited for being such great partners and for working with us to be sunshine farmers ☀ Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g9YNbiAx

As part of our ongoing commitment to foster an inclusive workplace for all, Contact is celebrating our new partnership with Pride Pledge🏳️🌈   Pride Pledge is a values-based commitment that organisations take to demonstrate their dedication to the safety, visibility and inclusion of the rainbow community, both internal and external to Contact.  Matt Jackson, our Senior People Experience Partner, is excited about the new partnership. “Pride Pledge totally aligns with our values of respect for the individual and a spirit of inclusion.” “We feel well supported by the team at Pride Pledge and look forward to furthering our support for the rainbow community, ensuring that we provide a safe and inclusive workplace for all of our team.” A big thank you to Rainbow Tick for all their support of the past five years. 🙏 The image below shows Contact’s Tighe Wall, Jan Bibby and Matt Jackson (MJ) with Pride Pledge’s Director Martin King 🏳️🌈 (second from left)

Talking all things Te Huka Unit 3: Things have been warming up at our Te Huka Unit 3 geothermal power station recently as it's reached an exciting phase of commissioning….steam has been introduced into the separator station for the first time. 🎉 Check out the video below!  👇 The separator station splits geothermal fluid into steam and liquids which both go to the power station. This milestone marks the start of the active steamfield commissioning phase for the site, with plenty more work and testing to be done, and it means Te Huka 3 is one step closer to becoming operational later this year. A geothermal power station with a single shaft generator driven by two binary cycles, Te Huka 3 is an additional unit at our existing Te Huka complex in Taupō. Once up and running, it will provide 51.4 megawatts of renewable electricity to the grid - enough to power 60,000 Kiwi homes. ⚡