The Northland owned company received the Supreme Award - Best Safety Culture for its safety leadership programme.

It was also deemed winner in two other categories – Safety Innovation Award - Northpower Tower Refurbishment Team and Workplace Safety Leadership Award - Jeremy Collins, Northpower ­ – collecting half of the awards on offer and being selected finalist in four of the five categories.

“Northpower being both a lines company and a significant provider of electricity contracting services has a strong motive to see excellence in safety achieved throughout the industry. Our staff in being so successful should be very proud for what they have achieved in recent years – their level of innovation and safety culture is outstanding,” says Mr Gatland.

The STAR Awards – which stands for Safety Thanks and Recognition – are hosted by Transpower every two years to acknowledge companies and workers in the transmission industry who build, operate and maintain the National Grid.

This year’s event was well attended by outstanding contributors from across New Zealand

Transpower spokesperson Rebecca Wilson said that the last year had seen substantial improvements in safety performance – injury frequency is down 40% from 2014/2015 - following a major focus on reducing the level of serious injuries.

“There is a lot of great work, great initiatives happening to really drive improvements to operate safely and our service providers like Northpower are a key component to this. Northpower were worthy winners of a number of awards that demonstrated innovative thinking and real culture change to ensure we can keep our people going home safe every night - and it’s important we celebrate this,” she said.

Northpower Regional Transmission Manager Peter Wilkinson says the awards are a significant milestone.

“The recognition received is reinforcement of the good work of our deserving employees and the Learning Wave which has worked alongside us,” says Mr Wilkinson.

“Our success at the STAR Awards has renewed the determination of our people to continue what they are doing in improving their safety, innovation and work practices – not just for Northpower but the broader Transmission sector because we are all in this together.

“Transpower has created this culture and environment for us all to work in and because of its support there has been a major shift in performance in the Transmission sector in recent years.”