Contact Energy Ltd

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. ⚡

Today we released our results for the 2024 financial year. This past year has been characterised by strong financial performance, significant investment in growth and focused project delivery. Our strong performance supports renewable investment. “The result has been a demonstration of strength in our underlying performance as we managed through market volatility, while keeping the momentum to deliver existing and new renewable developments,” says Contact CEO Mike Fuge. Read our full year results announcement on our news page here: https://lnkd.in/gcrSM7ac   We also released our 2024 Integrated Report, which you can view here: https://lnkd.in/g44kSBun   For the first time, we have produced a Climate Statement, read it here: https://lnkd.in/geW2_NsR

☀ ☀ Here comes the sun ☀ ☀ Together with our joint venture partner, Lightsource bp, we have reached final investment decision to build the Kōwhai Park Solar Farm on the Christchurch International Airport Limited campus. 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. 😎 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g9YNbiAx Michael Fuge Jacqui Nelson Matthew Cleland Shayne Roberts

Over the past couple of months we've been hitting the road attending career expos up and down the country to spread the word about our awesome early careers programmes. We visited the The University of Auckland, The University of Waikato and University of Canterbury for the Engineering Careers Expo - all with great turnouts. As well as providing an overview of all the projects we have on the go, the team loved talking to students about their career prospects. Know any students interested in doing some work with us over the summer? Our Internship Programme applications are now live. We have positions for up to 10 interns available at our geothermal power station in Taupō and hydro power station in Clyde. More information can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gApp2eDf

  To support our friends at the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges with their Winter Appeal, we are matching Safe Night donations made from 1 to16 August, up to 1,500 nights. You can gift a life-changing night's sleep and help a woman and her children escape family violence here: contact.co.nz/safenight 💜💛 If you’re in Wellington, check out the Women's Refuge pop-up shop on Brandon Street which provides an immersive experience of the effects of family violence. Members of the Contact team are also volunteering their time to help at the shop. Come along and pay a visit and support this worthy cause. To find out more visit contact.co.nz/safenight

Taupō is turning green(er) thanks to some of Contact’s geothermal team, their kids and members of the local community who all came together this weekend to plant around 2,000 native trees on public land near our Wairākei power station. The planting day was part of the Greening Taupō initiative, which, with the help of the community, aims to improve the Taupō environment for people and native wildlife through restoration planting and pest control projects.   Our team added more kohuhu, kanuka, totara, ribbonwood, and karamu to an existing community day planting site on Wairākei Drive. We can’t wait to watch their efforts  grow strong! 🌲 A big shout out to everyone who came along to muck in, particularly Contact volunteers who kept the planters well fed with a BBQ. 🍽

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