Investing in Northland’s growth
For more than 90 years, Northpower has grown as the region has grown.
We began as a local power board and grew through rural electrification, industrial expansion and population growth. Over this time, our role as a consumer-owned organisation has always been clear as we invest responsibly into the assets that our communities depend on every day and do it in a way that supports positive long-term regional outcomes.
Never have we felt this responsibility to invest in support of Northland more keenly. The southern part of our region has grown 6% per year over the past decade, and our region’s horticulture, agriculture, tourism, and construction sectors are also growing fast. Northland, as a region, is on track to become a $60 billion economy by 2050, an aspiration noted as ambitious but possible by the independent work of the NZ Institute of Economic Research Inc (NZIER), and one that positions Northland as a critical enabler of New Zealand’s longer-term growth.
At Northpower, we are investing heavily to enable this reality. Over the last decade, we have invested $247 million into our electricity distribution networks, $59 million into our fibre networks and more than $40 million into our generation business. Over the next decade, our plans commit investment of a similar scale into infrastructure critical to Northland’s $60 billion economic future.
Our investment is a vote of confidence in the region’s future.
Delivering cost-effective infrastructure
Our commitment to consumers is to manage prices while continuing to invest in the infrastructure our communities rely on every day.
Over the past 10 years, we have invested heavily in the asset management and operational approaches needed to ensure our networks operate efficiently. Our fibre networks are a practical example; we’re one of the smallest fibre networks in the country, yet one of the most cost-efficient. Our mixed overhead/underground deployment kept capital costs down, automation has kept our back-office lean, and our focus on the customer has kept our connection rates high.
We’ve also built a portfolio of commercial businesses at the scale needed to enable us to provide meaningful discounts on our pricing.
Our Energy Services business now contracts $454 million per year in electricity construction services across New Zealand. We have 25MW of renewable generation in construction, and our recent acquisition of Connell Contractors adds a civil-specific offering to our portfolio. The success of these businesses enabled us to discount our electricity network prices by 15% this past year.
Our goal, through cost-effective infrastructure, is economic advantage for Northland.
Part of a wider national effort
Northpower’s contribution is part of a united national effort.
At Northpower, we are proud that our Energy Services business supports other network energy organisations across New Zealand and that by doing this we can benefit Northland. We are key delivery partners to Vector, Powerco, and Transpower and support the majority of other EDBs in the North Island. These organisations are investing deeply in New Zealand’s energy system and investing in their regions. Working with these partners creates the opportunity for us to carry out work that supports the energy transition, while generating returns to benefit Northland.
We are also proud that our teams and our capabilities have grown as our clients have grown. We provide services across distribution, transmission, generation, large industrial connections, and asset inspection. We’re 1,600 people strong across 15 locations across the North Island, and we’ve doubled the volume of work we complete each year over the last decade. We’re scaling our teams as the needs of the sector increase.
The New Zealand energy sector is investing heavily to support a resilient and increasingly renewable energy future. Generation, distribution, transmission, retail and solar companies across New Zealand are combining to ensure we unlock New Zealand’s true renewable potential. It’s a future where residential, commercial, industrial and transport are increasingly electric. It’s a future where New Zealanders are in control of their energy future.
That’s a future that we believe is worth investing in.
