It will be the first gathering of local government officials and the power company since it confirmed in August it was revisiting previously shelved plans for dams at Beaumont, Queensberry and Luggate.
The river runs through three Otago district councils - Queenstown-Lakes, Central Otago and Clutha - and the meeting is expected to be the first of many.
Clutha Mayor Juno Hayes and his Central Otago counterpart, Dr Malcolm Macpherson, were the first to welcome the prospect last August that the dams might be built.
Yesterday, Mr Hayes said he suspected the meeting was about Contact looking at the best way it could engage the Otago community, should it get to the point where it wanted to build one or more dams on the river.
"But I'm not expecting any announcements [today]," Mr Hayes said.
Dr Macpherson said the meeting might or might not give councils a clearer idea of Contact's timeframe when it came to looking at the dams.
"I don't think there will be any great expectations we will leave knowing more than when we arrived," he said.
But, given the history of resource consent processes in Otago, Dr Macpherson said the initial meeting might be a good way "if they want to make progress on the Clutha towards more hydro".
The company would know it would have to take a long-term view and "do their homework" and be prepared to talk to many people for an extended period.
Dr Macpherson said the river's hydro-electric possibilities could never be overlooked.
"It's never going to go away. It [the river's hydro-electric potential] is like coal in the ground. You can choose not to mine it, but it's still there."
Queenstown-Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes did not return calls.
Contact's Clyde-based generation development project manager, Neil Gillespie, said today's meeting was "the first step in a journey".
"We thought this would be the best way to start our chats formally, outline how we might play it but there will no big announcements. There are no plans finalised and we are still just working through the options."
