Powernet

PowerNet Limited is the electricity network management company delivering power to Invercargill City, Southland, West Otago, parts of Central Otago, Eastern Otago, Stewart Island, remote islands south of Foveaux Strait and Antarctica.

PowerNet was established in 1994 by network owners Electricity Invercargill Limited and The Power Company Limited to develop, manage and maintain their electricity network assets – lines, poles, cables, substations and other equipment, in a cost-effective way.

PowerNet manages the electricity networks of The Power Company Limited, Electricity Invercargill Limited, OtagoNet Joint Venture and Electricity Southland Limited (in Central Otago).

The Power Company Limited
The Power Company Ltd is an electricity network asset company formed in 1991.

The company owns the electricity network assets in the Southland area, excluding parts of Invercargill City and the Bluff township area.

The Power Company has over 36,200 consumers and contracts PowerNet to manage the assets on its behalf.

Electricity Invercargill Limited
Electricity Invercargill Limited is an electricity network asset company formed in 1991. It owns the electricity network assets in Invercargill City and the Bluff township area.

The company has over 17,400 consumers and has contracted PowerNet to manage the network assets on its behalf.

Electricity Southland Limited
Electricity Southland Ltd is an electricity network asset company that was formed in March 1995 by Electricity Invercargill Ltd and The Power Company Ltd. It owns the Lakeland electricity network at Frankton in the Queenstown Lakes area and an embedded network in Wanaka, comprising of Northland and Hikuwai subdivisions.

The company has in excess of 1700 customers and has contracted PowerNet to manage the network assets on its behalf.

OtagoNet
The OtagoNet network area

OtagoNet is the major electricity network services provider for most of Otago.

Covering such a large area from near St Bathans in the North to the Chaslands in the South and inland from the Blue Mountains in the West to Shag Point on the North East coast, our crews do over 100 kilometres of overhead line renewals every year worth about $5.7 million.

In 2018-19, $16.2 million was invested in capital expenditure. The projects are largely replacing lines and rebuilding 11kV and 33kV lines, but also include substation upgrades and work on transformers, amongst other planned works.

OtagoNet has 15,064 customers and a Regulatory Value of $174 million made up of 4,516km of lines and cables and 4,274 distribution transformers, with a capacity of just over 189.6MVA.

Three companies, including The Power Company Ltd (TPCL) and Electricity Invercargill Ltd (EIL), formed the OtagoNet Joint Venture (OJV) in July 2002 following the purchase of the electricity network assets from the shareholders of the consumer co-operative company Otago Power Ltd.

OtagoNet is now part of the largest electricity network company in the lower South Island after EIL and TPCL bought Marlborough Lines Limited’s 51% share on September 1, 2014.

TPCL owns 75.1% of OtagoNet, with EIL holding the other 24.9%.

It is a big job keeping the OtagoNet infrastructure in tip-top shape.

Our asset management strategy to reduce the average age of our network ensures our customers get the safety, security, and reliability of supply they need for their homes and businesses.

Official webpages
Main home page: https://powernet.co.nz/

Subsidiary pages
The Power Company: https://powernet.co.nz/line-owners/the-power-company-limited/

Electricity Invercargill: https://powernet.co.nz/line-owners/electricity-invercargill-limited/

Electricity Southland: https://powernet.co.nz/line-owners/electricity-southland/

Otagonet: https://powernet.co.nz/line-owners/otagonet/