Recovery from “unprecedented storm” wins sparkling recognition for PowerNet

PowerNet is in the limelight after winning a major national award at the 2026 New Zealand Energy Excellence Awards. The Invercargill-based electricity network management company was named energy distributor of the year for its performance following the “unprecedented” October 2025 wind storm. It was the most significant outage event in the company’s history, knocking out power to more than 50,000 customers across the Southland and Otago regions. Almost all had power restored within about two weeks. The energy distributor of the year category recognises overall performance across technical, commercial, customer, environmental, social and governance, and wellbeing measures. PowerNet chief executive Paul Blue said the award was an acknowledgement of an extraordinary collective effort. “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. “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.” Mr Blue said there were many lessons learnt following the 2025 storm, and these were being turned into practical improvements for the future. PowerNet manages electricity networks across Southland, Otago, parts of Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes, and the Ruakura Superhub in Hamilton, serving about 78,000 customers across extensive rural, urban and remote areas. john.lewis@odt.co.nz