John made powerhouse career as electrician

Hydro operator John Sturgeon in the control room at the Benmore power station late last year....
Hydro operator John Sturgeon in the control room at the Benmore power station late last year. Photo by David Bruce.
An on-off-on again career with hydro generation in the Waitaki Valley spanning 45 years has been the major part of John Sturgeon's more than 50 years as an electrician, starting with a Dunedin apprenticeship.

Mr Sturgeon (67) has retired after ''51 years nine months and 1 day - just short of my 52 years''.

That started with R. Longton Jones Ltd in Dunedin, electrical contractors and the Otago distributors for Zip, on March 18, 1963, coming to the Waitaki Valley and joining the then New Zealand Electricity department (NZED) on November 18, 1969 and finishing on December 19 as electrical supervisor and controller for the mid-Waitaki dams and hydro stations of Waitaki, Aviemore and Benmore.

During that time he has also been involved in community groups and organisations in the Waitaki Valley, which will help keep him occupied in retirement, along with a mental list of jobs his wife Isobel has compiled for him to attend to.

During his time with the three power stations, he has been through three major Government restructurings of the electricity industry, the New Zealand Electricity Department (NZED) being split into the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand (ECNZ) for power generation and Transpower for transmission.

Later, the Waitaki Valley power stations became part of Meridian Energy Ltd and, more recently, Tekapo A and B going to Genesis Energy.

When Meridian employed electrical contractors to do the work on the three power stations, he survived working for seven companies in seven years, transferring from one to the other as contracts changed hands.

''Some of the things I will miss,'' he said about his career.

''Other things, I'm happy to let go.''

He will certainly miss ''the other guys'' he supervises and the ''adrenaline rush'' when ''something big blows up'' and it has to be brought back on line as quickly as possible.

Asked if that happened often, he replied: ''No, thank goodness.''

He will continue to be the Kurow Fire Brigade chief fire officer, chairman of Kurow Museum, a member of the Waitaki Valley Community Society, a panelist on the Waitaki restorative justice programme and play the solo tenor horn for the Timaru-based Alpine Energy Brass band.

He has other things lined up, including finishing an outdoor dining area of the Hakataramea property owned by himself and Isobel which he started as a retirement project.

Fishing and starting a midweek golf crew figure on his to-do list.

After serving his apprenticeship, and recalling his first job was being called to Donaghy's Rope and Twine factory, Mr Sturgeon moved to the single man's quarters at the Aviemore Village, which no longer exists.

Then, it had 32 houses and the single man's quarters.

He married Isobel Craig, whom he met while she was training as a teacher in Dunedin.

When they returned from their honeymoon, they moved into a brand new house provided by NZED, and he continued his job as an electrical fitter.

At that time, all the power stations had separate control rooms, co-ordinated by phones or, if there was a phone fault, by radio link, from a central command.

They were staffed 24 hours a day with three shifts.

However, most of Mr Sturgeon's work was during the day.

Then, there were 36 staff at Aviemore, including a ground maintenance crew, repeated at Waitaki and Benmore.

Then, all the mid and upper Waitaki power stations were controlled from a central control room at Twizel before being shifted to Christchurch.

Over the years, he was promoted up the chain One of the highlights was being involved in the redevelopment of the AC/DC link which fed electricity from Benmore through the Cook Strait to a corresponding converter at Haywards, Wellington.

As maintenance supervisor for the AC/DC station, in 1975-76 he oversaw the installation of equipment which enabled electricity to be sent from the North Island to the South, making the cable two-way.

In 1976 in the cafeteria, he and Mike Galvin started talking about an electrician's business for sale in Kurow.

They bought it and set up Valley Electrical Waitaki Ltd.

It carried out any ''everything and anything electrical'' and the family moved to a house at Hakataramea.

The business developed with a third partner, Peter Coughlan, joining the company.

The business eventually split in to three. Mr Sturgeon still ''does the odd job'' for loyal clients, which he will continue in retirement.

In 1995, he was asked to come back to work on maintenance at the AC/DC converter. He ended up working for a company contracted to Transpower.

During that time he qualified as a power station operator, able to work the control room at the Waitaki, Aviemore and Benmore power stations.

''Then, it was all hands-on; now it's the click of a mouse button.''

The individual control rooms are now only used if the link is lost with the central control room.

In 2000, he was made redundant by the contractor he worked for, but in March the following year was asked by Meridian Energy to come back again for the refurbishment of the Aviemore power station.

''I've been here ever since.''

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