Meeting Greytown's growth

We’re replacing and upgrading Greytown’s electricity network so the community can continue to have a reliable power supply to meet residential and commercial growth, as well as helping avoid unplanned power outages in the future.

The work is being carried out in phases. Phase one, which began in late 2020, involved a $1.6 million upgrade of the electricity network in western Greytown and included the central business district.

Phase two took place in late 2021 and early 2022 and was a $550,000 programme of work to upgrade and maintain the power poles, crossarms, and rewire sections of power lines in eastern Greytown.

Phase three is planned between late January 2025 and the end of March and is focused on Greytown West. The timing of this project has been specifically chosen to avoid the coldest of the winter months and to avoid the busy Christmas period.

Greytown community partnerships

As part of our commitment to supporting the communities we operate in, we partnered with the Greytown Community Board and Greytown Tree Action Group in July 2021 to bring our Replant for Tomorrow initiative to the town.

Replant for Tomorrow is our way of helping to redress the fact that, in order to help keep our customers’ power supply reliable and safe, we sometimes need to remove trees if they’re too close to power poles and lines.

Along with Wairarapa arborists Arb Innovations Ltd, trees were planted at O’Connor’s Bush and Greytown Cemetery on Arbor Day 2021.

In addition, in late 2021, we supported the Greytown community’s drive to save its iconic 165-year-old, St Luke’s Church eucalyptus tree, contributing the remaining funds needed to protect the tree.

Millie Blackwell, Chair of the Greytown Heritage Trust, who has been involved in the fundraising from the start, said our support meant the work could finally be completed to preserve the tree.

“On behalf of the Greytown Heritage Trust and the Greytown community we are beyond grateful for Powerco’s contribution. This donation meant we could complete all the work necessary to preserve this significant and historically important tree,” she says.

During 2022 and 2023, we partnered with the Greytown community by supporting the town's Festival of Christmas with Powerco Winter Wonderland. Our support means Greytown people can wander through a magical winter wonderland in Stella Bull Park any night during the mid-winter festival. We provide games for the family, as well as a photo booth, and people can use silent disco headphones and dance their way through the lit-up forest.

From left: Greytown Tree Action Group’s Jez Partridge, Greytown Community Board member Shelley Symes, Powerco General Manager Customer Stuart Dickson and Arb Innovations’ James Milcairns at the Replant for Tomorrow event at the entrance to Greytown Cemetery. 

Above: Arb Innovations Powerco Contract Manager and Arborist, James Milcairns, crown reducing the iconic Greytown gum.