Company Profile
Northpower Limited (‘Northpower’) is proudly New Zealand owned and is the largest service provider to New Zealand’s electrical distribution sector.
With a history steeped in community, innovation, engineering expertise, award winning safety initiatives, renewable energy, fibre and electricity network ownership and management, Northpower has matured immensely from humble beginnings in rural New Zealand early last century.
It has expanded from a Dargaville based, consumer-owned and operated Northland electricity distribution network to become one of the largest multi-utility contractors in New Zealand, with a demonstrated commitment to safety, delivery and innovation. In the last decade alone, Northpower’s growth has been illustrated by the establishment of business units in Western Australia and Melbourne. This is combined with forays into electricity and renewable energy work in the Pacific Islands, in partnership with the national electricity authorities of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. Numerous projects are underway in the Pacific and more are on the horizon.
Added to this is expertise in fibre network design and build, signified by Northpower securing New Zealand’s first Government-backed Ultra-Fast Broadband contract – to construct Whangarei’s fibre network to more than 19,000 premises by June 2014. Northpower had first established its own award winning, world class fibre network in 2008. Others now seek Northpower’s guidance on fibre network infrastructure design and build.
Exporting Northpower’s expertise, project management, IP and engineering capability has been a logical step for a company that has grown so quickly and captured such a large slice of the New Zealand electricity contracting market in little over a decade. Yet Northpower continues to own, operate and maintain the electrical distribution network within the Whangarei and Kaipara Districts.
The Northpower Network is made up of 55,000 connected consumers – from Topuni in the south, to Bland Bay in the north. With such sizeable customers as the New Zealand Refinery, Golden Bay Cement and Fonterra’s Kauri Dairy Plant, Northpower understands implicitly the needs of major corporations here and abroad.
In addition to the electrical distribution network, Northpower owns, operates and maintains a 5MW hydro-electric power plant, is trialing a solar PV unit and is also investigating other renewable opportunities in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Northpower is recognised within the New Zealand, Australian and Pacific Island’s electricity sectors as a trusted and reliable service provider, with a strong ethos of safely delivering on commitments backed by an innate understanding of network ownership and management, along with the implicit need for efficiencies.
With long term contracts to four of New Zealand’s five largest electricity distribution companies – Wellington Electricity and Vector included – Northpower has captured over 30% of New Zealand’s outsourced service market in the electricity distribution sector. Northpower Contracting provides a competitive multi-disciplinary service in design, construction and maintenance for electrical transmission, distribution, and telecommunication networks. Northpower now has eight substantial service agreements with major utilities in New Zealand and Australia.
Outside of the distribution sector, Northpower also performs capital works and maintenance services for many industrial customers – Pacific Steel and Auckland District Health Board included. In 2012 Northpower successfully secured a key maintenance contract with New Zealand’s national grid owner Transpower, to provide transmission lines maintenance and capital projects services in the Northern region and substation maintenance and construction projects in the Central region, supported by a newly created Rotorua office.
Northpower’s head office is in Whangarei, one of 15 depots throughout the North Island. All of Northpower’s contracting operations assist with contributing to best practice, security of electricity supply and industry productivity and ultimately plays a part in economic prosperity of those countries in which we work – ensuring the longevity of critical infrastructure for the communities we work in.
With revenue around $250 million annually, Northpower’s growth path is solid. A vision to become a $500 million company is in sight and with over 1000 employees sharing that belief; the Northpower journey is an exciting one.
Recent Awards
Winner – 2012 ESITO Excellence Awards: Networks Trainee of the Year; Advanced Trainee of the Year; Top Foreman – National Line Mechanics competition
Runners-up – 2012 ESITO Line Mechanic & Cable Jointer competitions
Winner – 2012 Prime Minister’s Business Scholorship
Winner – 2012 Electrical Engineers’ Association Workplace Safety Award – ‘Only you have the power to change’ drug and alcohol education DVD (a joint venture between Northpower, Transpower, Top Energy, Electrix, NZ EPMU)
Winner – 2012 New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards ‘Best initiative to improve employee wellness’ – ‘Only you have the power
to change’
Finalist – 2012 Transpower STAR Awards
Winner – 2011 ESITO Contribution to Industry Training; Advanced Trainee of the Year; Industry Recognition for efforts in ‘Women in Power’
Our Values
- We will stretch to make it happen and deliver on our promises
- We confront problems with honesty and fix them
- We protect Northpower’s people, property and equipment
- We work hard to keep our customers
Northpower's Commitment to Zero Harm
Safety first:
Northpower will not endanger customers, the public, staff or the environment. We invest largely in safety training for all staff every year and have signed the Zero Harm Workplaces Pledge - a Government initiative with the Business Leaders Forum.
Accreditation
Quality:
Northpower is accredited to ISO 9001 standard and has a well-established self-auditing system in place. We ensure compliance to industry standards and are committed to delivering services and products which exceed customer expectations.
Environmental:
Northpower is accredited to ISO 14001 and has a comprehensive environmental management system in place.
Our People
Northpower is a progressive company employing over 1100 people throughout the group in New Zealand and Australia. Northpower is renowned for its safe, can-do attitude, having a highly committed team of engineers, designers, project managers, supervisors and field staff, with good attitudes and the right competencies to do the job.
Our people are our greatest asset and because we recognise this, we invest heavily in staff development and training. We employ industry specific trade coaches for field staff and have a robust employee development programme to cater for future resource needs. Our well-established employment brand allows access to additional skilled resources, enabling us to provide tailored solutions to meet specific customer requirements.
Our Board of Directors
Northpower’s Board of Director’s provide leadership, expertise and direction to the Executive team based on their many years of professional and industry experience.
Our Executive Leadership Team
Northpower’s Executive Leadership Team is responsible for setting the overall strategic direction for the company and ensuring business plans are implemented. The team works closely with other senior managers to monitor performance and develop our people.
Capability
Safety: Safety underpins everything Northpower does, from the boardroom to the field, with an ethos of never compromising on safety.
Distribution Networks: An integrated service for all your electrical distribution requirements, including asset maintenance, fault repair and restoration, design, build, installation and upgrades to existing systems.
Telecommunications: Northpower has partnered with the New Zealand Government to build one of our first UFB fibre networks. Separately, Northpower Communications specialises in the design, installation and maintenance of fibre optic networks delivering high speed broadband.
Design and Engineering: Innovative, tailored design and engineering solutions covering all aspects of electrical and telecommunication networks throughout New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Transmission: Northpower’s standing in the transmission sectors of New Zealand and Australia has grown considerably in recent years. We are now involved in the construction, maintenance and management of transmission networks with some of Australasia’s largest and most successful electricity companies.
Industrial and Commercial: A turnkey solution for design, build and installation of electrical services, data solutions, lighting systems, plus expert ongoing asset management and maintenance.
Northpower Locations
Northpower Network and Contracting locations.
