Contact Energy Ltd

Some of our Wairākei geothermal team spent an afternoon at the pool earlier this week. But instead of having a swim, they were clearing out rubbish and green waste from Wairākei Primary School’s swimming pool, which has been unused for many years. The team of volunteers did a great job helping to create an additional play area for the kids. Students have already come up with loads of fun ideas on how the space could be used – a giant chess board, handball courts, or maybe even a sandpit! ⛹♀️ ‘Be the neighbour you want to have’ – that’s our philosophy, and to us that means making a positive contribution to the communities where we live and work. Ka pai Sam Shortland, Stafford Whittfield, Matt Stulen, Jordan Dodwell, Kerin Brockbank, Neeltje de Groot, Adam Wallace, and Matthew Williamson #teamworkmakesthedreamwork

Keeping the lines of communication open might sound like a cliché, but when it comes to getting a new power station up and running, it couldn’t be more important. This was certainly the case for Eddie, Construction Manager at our new Te Huka unit 3 geothermal power station in Taupō. Since being brought onto the project in early 2023, he has worked non-stop on reviewing the design, engaging with neighbours, arranging permits and safety documents, to managing equipment delivery to the site – often with huge pieces of equipment that all need somewhere to live. All before construction has even begun! That’s where Eddie’s communications skills are really showcased; by providing onsite support, which takes many forms and contractor engagement. “We’ve got people from a few different walks of life here at Te Huka 3. A few people didn’t know each other beforehand or were new to geothermal. The key thing is they’ve listened, asked questions, and now the team is humming along nicely”, he says. “You find you take a bit of that from someone, a bit from someone else and it all comes together.” After working on six different hydro stations during his career, which started with an apprenticeship over 40 years ago, Eddie has found his passion sits with geothermal. “No two wells are the same. Things wear out differently and it’s quite a different set up to hydro”, he says. “With geo, hot water and steam comes out of the ground, then there’s a whole lot of processes that happen to separate them and turn them into steam or separated water to heat the process fluid or drive the turbines. It’s fascinating!” Once online at the end of 2024, Te Huka 3 (see photo below), our seventh geothermal power station, will produce an extra 1% of renewable electricity into the grid - enough to power 60,000 homes. Eddie is just one of more than 250 dedicated and hard-working people who have, or currently are, working on Te Huka 3.  Keep an eye out for more stories from the team. A big thank you to everyone at Te Huka 3 for all their hard mahi! ❤️ #teamworkmakesthedreamwork 

Another key milestone has been reached at our new geothermal power station at Tauhara. The team has successfully completed a 30-day reliability run, where the plant ran continuously at around 152MW. Tauhara is now providing renewable electricity to the grid, helping keep the lights on and another step in our vision to lead the decarbonisation of New Zealand. There are still some final touches and modifications to be done during the last stages of commissioning, so Tauhara will be running at 130MW for the time being. Once these are complete, Tauhara – the largest single shaft geothermal turbine power station in the world - is expected to operate at around 152MW.  We’ll then be making further modifications during the first planned outage (scheduled for October 2025) to secure long-term generation of 174MW. The video below 👇 gives you a snapshot of the building of Tauhara. It takes time, hard mahi and perseverance to build a geothermal power station of this size. We want to acknowledge our Tauhara team who are doing a fantastic job! 👏  

Geothermal Week is one of our favourite times of the year. It’s a great opportunity to come together to celebrate what is happening across the industry and learn from one another. Some of our highlights from last week in Taupō include a tour of our Te Huka plant for Pathway students, where members of our team shared stories of their career journeys and roles at Contact. Hopefully we inspired a few rangatahi to consider a career in energy generation! 🤞 Our Chief Executive Mike Fuge talked about why geothermal is the unsung hero of renewable energy at the New Zealand Geothermal Association Winter Seminar with Kennie Tsui. Plus, on Saturday, around 300 people from the local community joined us on an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of our Wairakei power station, steamfield, and Te Mihi power station. Not only that, but two members of our fantastic geothermal team received accolades at the WING New Zealand - Women in Geothermal Awards! Congratulations to Courtney Fox, who scooped the One to Watch Award, and to Alan Ferguson who received the Tane Award. Very well deserved! 👏 Thanks to New Zealand Geothermal Association, Amplify (Taupo District Economic Development) and everyone who made it a memorable week. See you at Geothermal Week 2025! #NZGeothermalWeek2024 #GeothermalEnergy #AmplifyTaupo #NZGeothermalAssociation #SustainableEnergy

Teamwork is dreamwork. This was certainly the case on our two-year project to transform our trading systems. After a lot of hard mahi and collaboration between our Trading, Finance, Digital and ICT teams, and our partner Hitachi Energy, we’re celebrating our new trading platform becoming fully operational 🎉 The platform has enhanced automation, gives real-time insights, simplifies complex calculations, and ensures robust risk management. It will revolutionise our trading capabilities, enabling us to work more efficiently and manage the increasing complexity of a larger diverse renewable energy generation portfolio. The platform is a significant achievement for our digital delivery team and will support our commitment to lead the decarbonisation of New Zealand. Well done to everyone involved! 🙌

We’re excited to announce we’re contracting with Tesla to build a 100-megawatt grid-scale battery. It will help keep the lights on and reduce New Zealand’s reliance on fossil fuels, therefore reducing carbon emissions. The $163million investment will see the battery built on New Zealand Steel's Glenbrook site in south Auckland, which has a high voltage connection to the national grid. This will be the country’s newest large-scale battery, the closest to the largest city, and Tesla’s first Megapack 2 XL system in New Zealand. The battery is a bit like the Swiss Army Knife of the electricity system, performing a range of roles, such as: *storing excess renewable electricity when demand is low *taking 0.2 seconds to supply electricity to the country once it’s switched on *providing up to 44,000 homes with electricity during periods of high demand. *reducing New Zealand’s reliance on fossil fuels electricity generation, and therefore reducing carbon emissions. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with our partners Tesla and New Zealand Steel to expand our renewable energy generation fleet, while meeting the environmental and cultural expectations of Auckland Council, community, and local iwi Ngaati Te Ata. This battery is a significant milestone towards our vision to lead the decarbonisation of the country. Check out the video below to hear more about the investment from our CEO Mike Fuge. 👇

We can’t wait for Geothermal Week in Taupō next week! 🌋 Geothermal Week showcases the best in New Zealand’s world-class geothermal industry. As proud sponsors of the event, we’re involved in a number of activities including industry field trips and workshops. Our CEO, Mike Fuge will also be speaking at the New Zealand Geothermal Association Winter Seminar on how geothermal is shaping the country’s renewable energy landscape. We’re also giving a free behind-the-scenes tour of our Te Mihi site, which is available to anyone wanting to get an exclusive insight into how a geothermal power station works. Check out the full schedule and register your spot for the Te Mihi open day here:  https://lnkd.in/gXQ5vBfU    #geothermal  #nzgeothermal  #nzgeothermalweek

In a male-dominated industry, Britney says low numbers of women in engineering held her back from getting into the trade. She’s now an Apprentice Electrical Generation Technician at Wairākei geothermal power station and loves her job. “It is a very rewarding job and is becoming more popular for women to get into. The job is awesome, and you’ll learn lots of amazing things,” says Britney. Her career path was an unexpected one. She worked in the health sector for years, continually pushing her interest in being an electrician to the back of her mind. Britney knew she wanted to make a change in her career. “I’d prepped myself to face the challenges of being a girl trying to get into a trade, but I was determined, so I just went for it,” she says. And what a pay-off it was! “I love my workplace and the team,” Britney says. It’s an ongoing effort to encourage girls into the engineering industry. One initiative is Connexis Girls with Hi Vis, an annual event that sees female high school students visiting power stations to learn about the industry and try their hand at some of the skills required for different roles in the industry. As part of the event, we welcomed around 40 female high school students to Clyde Dam and Stratford Power Station over the past few weeks. Our team at Clyde prepared a range of activities for the students, including getting the opportunity to operate a crane and a dam tour. While in Taranaki, students had a tour around the Stratford site and undertook a practical exercise soldering and testing a pressure transmitter. Both events received great feedback from schools and students.  A big thanks to all who were involved! 👏 Yesterday was International Women in Engineering Day and Contact is proud to champion our wāhine. #IWED2024 #IWED #WomenInEnegineering

We’re excited to share that our Tauhara team brought home the Wellbeing Award at the Safeguard New Zealand Workplace Health & Safety Awards last night! 🎉 The team was commended for their approach to safety and wellbeing by prioritising people’s needs to ensure engagement. Some highlights of the wellbeing initiative at Tauhara were a ‘Wellbeing Reception’ to give everyone a warm greeting as they entered the site, a construction village people could meet to share kai and shelter from the weather, and establishing cultural monitors who helped ensure our diverse Tauhara team felt included.  And there were also regular visits from Mr Whippy! 🍦 Our Protect@Contact program, a website which hosts critical safety documents, was also a finalist in the Safety-II category. Congratulations team – it’s fantastic that your efforts to keep our Tauhara team safe have been recognised. A big congrats to all the other winners, finalists and entrants. #wellbeing Mark Green Corey Wynne Craig Woolacott

Woohoo! Today you'll see Contact has been named as a finalist in three categories of the 2024 New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards. 👏 Energy Retailer of the Year for our efforts to provide the best service for our customers. 👏 Community Initiative of the Year for our partnership with National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges. 👏 Well-being Award for our staff skin health programme. It's a real privilege to make the finalist spots of these awards and it's all thanks to our people, customers, stakeholders and the communities where we operate. Huge congratulations to the other finalists too - looking forward to celebrating in August at the awards night! Eagle Technology nib Group EDMI ANZ #NewZealandEnergyExcellenceAwards #EnergyAwardsNZ