PowerNet Wins National Distributor Award
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PowerNet has been named Energy Distributor of the Year at the 2026 New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards — recognition built on one of the worst weeks in the company's history.
The award was presented in Wellington on August 19, with judges citing PowerNet's response to the October 2025 wind storm that cut power to more than 50,000 customers across Southland and Otago. Some were without electricity for 12 days.
Chief Executive Paul Blue said the award reflected something bigger than the company alone.
"Our teams worked incredibly hard in some challenging conditions and were supported by colleagues from other electricity businesses and mutual aid partners from all over the country," Blue said.
"This award recognises our incredibly resilient community, too, which were incredibly kind and supportive of our teams, despite some being without power for 12 days."
The Energy Excellence Awards recognise performance across the energy sector nationally, with the distributor category judged on technical, commercial, customer, environmental, social and governance, and wellbeing measures. It's a broad scorecard — the kind that doesn't let anyone hide behind a single good quarter. Winning it after the most significant outage event in PowerNet's history is either a remarkable turnaround story or a very Southland kind of achievement — probably both.
Blue said lessons from the storm response are being converted into practical improvements. The company manages electricity networks across Southland, Otago, parts of Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes, and the Ruakura Superhub in Hamilton, serving around 78,000 customers across rural, urban and remote areas. That's a sprawling, geographically demanding patch at the best of times — let alone when a wind storm decides to test every metre of it at once.