Congratulations to all external suppliers and partners as well as the numerous Transpower teams.
Engineering by design
Demonstrating best practice engineering and technology by design to deliver an improved engineering and technology outcome.
AECOM – Digital Substation – Protection & automation hardware design
The development of digital ‘process bus’ substations required a thorough re-evaluation of protection and automation hardware, impacting design, installation, testing, maintenance, and operations. This project, focused on re-designing systems for a greenfield digital substation, allowed for a review of existing designs and aimed to enhance efficiency.
Transpower – Urgent grid reconfiguration to maintain security for NZ’s largest load centre
The double-circuit Whakamaru-Brownhill-Pakuranga line is vital for Auckland’s power supply. Between 2020 and 2021, Transpower faced multiple joint failures on one circuit’s cable section, leading to potential multi-month outages and a 15% capacity reduction. System modelling suggested connecting the faulted circuit to Ohinewai as a mitigation strategy, allowing the cable to be bypassed. This solution was successfully implemented in four months, restoring the grid to about 98% capacity and enabling repairs with minimal cost and no compromise to supply security.
Investment in our industry future
Making a significant investment in the engineering and technology future of our industry.
Ergo Consulting – Building a power systems consultancy from the bottom up
Ergo, founded in 2003 by Chris Turney, aimed to create a community of passionate power industry engineers. Recognising the need for growth, Chris invested heavily in training and developing their own engineers. Over 20 years, Ergo built the infrastructure and culture to develop young engineers into capable leaders. This investment allows Ergo to support a large number of engineers’ careers. The prolonged investment benefits both Ergo and the wider industry, as the demand for skilled energy engineers grows. Many Ergo graduates have advanced to leadership roles within Ergo and other companies, a testament to their successful development program.
Transpower – Digital Switch Management
The Digital Switch Management (DSM) programme is a crucial investment for the future, introducing new methods for the National Grid Operations Centre (NGOC) and preparing Transpower for increased grid asset work. It replaces manual, paper-based switching sequences with a digital process, ensuring accuracy and compliance with safety regulations. With thousands of planned outages annually, digitisation is essential. The first stage of DSM, a multi-year project, has been successfully implemented, standardising and scaling planning functions through a centralised workflow. Collaboration and innovation have been key, setting the stage for continued success in the programme.
Transpower – Reactive Power Control
As New Zealand electrifies, managing power system voltage becomes complex, necessitating automation. A cost-effective solution was needed for Upper North Island voltage and reactive reserve management across nine substations. Engineers, Coordinators, and IST designed a SCADA-based Upper North Island Reactive Power Controller (UNIRPC), validated through power system modelling and leveraging the existing SCADA ecosystem. This scalable, intuitive solution automates manual voltage management, verified via simulator testing. UNIRPC now performs over 75% of reactive plant switching, allowing Coordinators to focus on other tasks. It ensures quick voltage restoration during events, reducing future RPC implementation costs and risks.
Transpower – Real Time Pricing
New Zealand’s previous electricity market design had a two-day delay in spot prices, hindering real-time decision-making and efficient market operations. The Real Time Pricing (RTP) project aimed to provide real-time price certainty, requiring significant engineering efforts for real-time data processing and modernising legacy software.
RTP delivers real-time spot prices every half hour, enhancing decision-making, participation, renewable energy integration, and demand management. It improves price accuracy, reduces volatility, and drives innovation.
Implemented by the Electricity Authority, Transpower, and NZX, RTP supports energy optimisation, distributed energy resource (DER) integration, and a shift to a low-emissions economy, ensuring efficient energy management.
Collaboration
A collaboration that results in an improved project outcome, innovation or growth of our engineering and technology capability, or has a significant positive impact on progress towards our energy future.
Beca – Redclyffe Cyclone Gabrielle protection and automation response
In February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand’s North Island, severely affecting Hawke’s Bay with flooding and power outages. A National Civil Defence Emergency was declared. Transpower, Ventia, Beca, and partners worked to restore and enhance the region’s power systems. They repurposed a building for temporary relay equipment and rapidly deployed new protection schemes. Despite challenges, their collaborative efforts quickly restored resilience to the Redclyffe protection systems, minimising disruption. The response led to innovations and process improvements, showcasing effective teamwork and engineering ingenuity. This effort is recognised in a joint award nomination by Ventia, Beca, and Transpower.
Groundline – OHW tee fast-tracked line build
In late 2022, a line diversion to the BHL-WHN-A line was needed to repair the BHL-PAK-A & B 220kV cables in Auckland, mitigating imminent failure risks. Transpower chose a tee-off near Ohinewai substation. This fast-tracked project involved consenting, property acquisition, procurement, design, and construction of a 1.5km 220kV pole line. Approved in November 2022, the route was confirmed in February 2023, and commissioned by September 2023. Achieving this in under a year, instead of the typical 3-4 years, required extensive collaboration and efficient communication among stakeholders, showcasing the professionalism and dedication of the project team.
Transpower – Murihiku Southland electrification development plan
This project demonstrated collaboration through the exceptional work completed swiftly by a diverse group of cross-organisational contributors. Historically, disjointed investment practices led to isolated decisions. The increased electrification rate now presents opportunities for collaboration to ensure long-term regional suitability, optimise short-term investments, and maintain flexibility for future projects. Recognising this, Transpower and PowerNet designed a regional electricity development plan for Southland. Numerous stakeholder meetings informed the plan, resulting in tactical options for short-term investments and a final development plan released in December 2023. This plan identifies essential projects and outlines larger investments triggered by specific milestones.
Sustainability
An engineering or technology initiative or strategy that has or will provide long-term positive impacts on the environment.
Transpower – First utility-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) into energy and reserve markets
New Zealand’s first utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), NewPower Energy’s “Rotohiko” battery at Huntly, was commissioned in 2023. It offers capacity across injection, dispatchable demand (DD), injection reserve, and interruptible load. The Real Time Pricing project enabled scheduling and dispatching load like generation, co-optimising for energy and reserves. Transpower’s Market Operations team, with Real Time Systems and Power Systems teams, modelled and tested Rotohiko. Challenges required new solutions and extensive collaboration. BESS flexibility improves peak load management, resource utilisation from intermittent generation, and reduces fossil-fuel reliance. Rotohiko’s integration marks a step towards a sustainable future for New Zealand.
Transpower – Predictive maintenance to manage SF6 leakages in Transpower circuit breakers
SF6 is the most potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 23,500 times that of CO2. We developed an predictive model that utilised our Rangipo gas pressure data to predict leak rates, low gas alarm and automatically create Maximo work orders to address leaks proactively. This scalable solution transforms our approach from reactive to predictive, achieving sustainability goals by reducing emissions at Rangipo by 90%. It also prevents low alarm call-outs, enhances safety, boosts productivity, and saves costs.
Transpower – Moving towards zero waste - recycling glass insulators
The 2020 Sustainability Strategy identified recyclable assets like glass insulators, comprise 17% of Transpower’s waste. The glass insulator recycling initiative diverts 127 tonnes of insulators from landfill annually, helping Transpower reach its goal of reducing landfilled waste by 30% by 2030 and cutting disposal costs by 30%. Challenges included assessing the recyclability of hardened glass, processing practicality, and finding a recycling partner. The scheme minimises impact on field operations and repurposes materials, with recycled glass used in products like glass wool insulation, enhancing energy efficiency in homes and businesses.
Value engineering
An engineering or technology project, initiative, innovation or strategy that demonstrates the greatest whole of life net benefits and return on investment supporting our energy future.
ElectroNet – Lean and green: enabling renewables through optimising substation footprints
Over the last decade, renewable generation technology has advanced, offering new investment opportunities. Wind and solar technologies are modular, but integrating them with existing transmission infrastructure remains challenging. For a recent solar farm Grid Injection Point (GIP) connection, ElectroNet used existing substation designs but reassessed their suitability for solar infrastructure, which has lower resilience requirements. This new approach allowed for substantial cost savings while maintaining critical grid infrastructure. By revisiting core design principles, Transpower and ElectroNet proposed cost-effective options for new developers, ensuring affordable renewable generation investment in New Zealand without compromising transmission asset resilience.
Transpower – An improved tower painting economic model using machine learning
Transpower spends $50 million annually on painting to mitigate corrosion of its 24,000 steel towers. An ageing fleet made future costs non-viable, prompting the development of a more accurate Tower Painting Cost model using machine learning (ML). This model identifies complex patterns to improve forecast accuracy, potentially saving $20-40 million over 10 years. It optimises painting schedules, extends tower life, and minimises environmental impacts. The ML model improved first paint forecasts by 73% and recoat forecasts by 58%. This project introduced new capabilities within Transpower, including the first in-house automated ML model and production pipeline, requiring multidisciplinary collaboration.
Transpower – Standard design solutions enable streamlined customer connections to the national grid
Transpower standardised the design of Grid Injection Points (GIP) and Grid Exit Points (GXP) to support new customer connections, ensuring optimal whole-of-life net benefits. The challenge arose from increased connection requests due to government electrification initiatives. Traditional customised designs were inefficient, necessitating a new approach. Overcoming challenges like balancing expert opinions, anticipating future technology changes, and limited resources, the standardised designs led to faster design phases, rapid deployment, bulk purchasing, and streamlined construction. Resulting in savings in both time and costs. This success was achieved through structured collaboration and comprehensive documentation.
Complex and challenging
A complex engineering or technology challenge resolved in an elegant and straightforward manner.
AECOM – High voltage switchboard remediation at Pan Pac following Cyclone Gabrielle
On 14th Feb 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle devastated New Zealand’s East Coast, submerging Pan Pac’s Whirinaki Mill and damaging its electrical infrastructure. With no emergency generation, restoring power to the 40+ year old switchgear was critical. Challenges included the unknown extent of damages, obsolete equipment, lack of spare parts, and contractor shortages. Conventional testing suggested replacement, but long lead times made this unviable. Extensive remediation in 2023, despite unanticipated challenges, successfully restored power in August 2023, enabling production to restart. This collaboration between Transpower, Pan Pac, AECOM, Falcon Electrical, Unison, and others showcased resilience and innovation in response to a major climate event.
Transpower – An innovative solution to improve HVDC availability – Pole 3 valve cooling CO2 dosing
Transpower HVDC engineers re-engineered a vendor-supplied solution to fit Aotearoa’s unique HVDC application, enhancing reliability during the energy transition. The Pole 3 valve cooling system had a design flaw causing aluminium hydroxide build-up, leading to potential fires or trips. Annual maintenance involved removing and cleaning 288 grading electrodes, increasing risks. The vendor’s carbon-dioxide injection system failed, tripping Pole 3. Transpower’s team redesigned it, ensuring it was fit for purpose. These practical, data-backed solutions reduced failure risks, outages, and future maintenance needs, demonstrating innovative engineering and problem-solving.
Transpower – Cyclone Gabrielle Response – Restoring power to 225,000 customers through collaboration and innovative solutions
Cyclone Gabrielle devastated New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region, leaving 225,000 residents without power and damaging Transpower’s electricity infrastructure. The most critical was Redclyffe substation where floodwaters rose to 1.5m, severing connections to the National Grid. Transpower’s Operational Engineering team faced challenges due to lack of information, blocked roads, and no cell-phone coverage. Despite this, they restored 100MW of power within three days, lifting regional morale. Solutions included establishing a 220kV connection from Tauhara to Whakatu, reviving Redclyffe with a 110kV connection from Tuai, creating a 33kV tie, and commissioning an interconnector. Their innovative, collaborative efforts showcased resilience and effective problem-solving under pressure.
We received almost 50 nominations which provided quite the challenge for our expert judges. They were impressed with the quality of the nominations which made for a challenge to select the finalists. A big thanks to all our nominators and nominees and we recognise the contributions you make every day in championing and celebrating excellence in engineering and technology in Aotearoa’s transmission sector.
Our finalists will be celebrated, and winners announced at an awards ceremony on Tuesday 15 October 2024. We’ll come together to share stories of pride and excellence, celebrate the hard work and congratulate our winners, ultimately crowning a Supreme Winner from the category winners.
A limited number of tickets will be available to purchase in coming weeks once finalists have confirmed their attendees. You can email expressions of interest to: [email protected]
Thank you to our wider industry whanau for your contribution and support of the awards to date. The awards are our chance to celebrate our industry’s engineering and technology specialists who demonstrate excellence and deliver outstanding solutions that empower the energy future. We want to put these people in the spotlight and celebrate their work.