Powerco electricity contracts going to tender

For the first time in more than a decade, Powerco’s Electricity Field Services Agreements (EFSAs) for major electricity field services on its North Island network are going to tender. 
 
Powerco General Manager Electricity Karen Frew says Powerco has been reviewing all aspects of its business to ensure the company is ready to enable Aotearoa New Zealand to decarbonise. 
 
“Our future electricity network will be very different from our network of today. Evolving customer requirements, the need to reduce New Zealand’s carbon footprint and the ongoing emergence of new technology is an opportunity for us to advance the services we offer,” Karen Frew says. 
 
“We’ve made a lot of progress preparing for the future of electricity, including giving customers access to quality network data, such as network capacity data, investing in digitalisation, delivering non-network solutions for our customers, and working with EV and solar infrastructure owners to connect directly to our network.  
 
“With our current EFSAs expiring next year, it is time to review those to ensure they are fit for the future also.” 
 
The last time these EFSAs went to market was in 2013, with Downer being engaged as Powerco’s primary field services contractor since 2014.  
 
Karen Frew says Powerco already has strong existing relationships with several contractors who the company will be inviting to tender. With its experience working on Powerco’s network for the past decade, Downer will be encouraged to tender.  
 
“If there are other contractors who believe they have the capability and expertise to provide Powerco’s major electricity field services, who have not been invited to tender, please contact us,” she says. 
 
Powerco’s EFSAs with Downer will reach the end of their scheduled term at the end of June 2025. The tender process will open on 7 October and run until 29 November, with contracts to begin mid-2025. 
 
Change in contracting model 
 
To enable an energy transition to increased electrification while ensuring continued value for customers, Powerco is changing its contracting model, Karen Frew says.  
 
“Through the tender process, we’ll be looking for primary contractors to provide major electricity field services, including fault response, and secondary contractors to provide work such as capital projects and maintenance, including support for fault response.  
 
Powerco’s electricity network will be divided into four work regions and expects to award separate regions to successful tenderers: 
 
• Coromandel to South Waikato 
• Western Bay of Plenty 
• Taranaki, Whanganui and Rangitīkei 
• Manawatū and Wairarapa  
 
Customer initiated works 
 
Meanwhile, as part of its business-wide evaluation, Powerco is moving to a new way of managing customer-initiated works (CIW) on its network. The change will see Powerco managing the end-to-end customer experience rather than a customer working directly with a Powerco-approved contractor.  
 
Powerco has 31 contractors approved to carry out customer work on its network, including electricity connections, disconnections and upgrades.  
 
“We’re on a journey to improve the experience we give our customers. So that we can have greater oversight of the quality, safety and the service we provide to customers, we’re reducing the number of contractors we directly engage to do customer work,” Karen Frew says. 
 
“While we will reduce the pool of contractors approved to carry out customer work on our network, I want to stress that the volume of work across the network will not reduce. Our contractors are very important, and we value the work they do as our representatives with customers,” Karen Frew says. 
 
“Part of changing the way we work includes aligning our CIW contracting model with our new EFSAs. For this reason, we are including some customer work within our EFSA tender as services to be provided by the primary and secondary contractors. We will also run a parallel tender for specialist CIW contractors at the same time and we expect to have two specialist CIW contractors per region.” 

The parallel tender for specialist CIW contractors opens on 29 October.