Orion: We’re investing in your electricity network, and we welcome your feedback

Nigel Barbour, The Orion Group Chief Executive, invites businesses to share their perspectives and help shape the future of the network.

As more of how we live, work and play is powered by electricity, providing an electricity network that supports our region for the future is central to delivering value for our customers and community. We invite you to share your perspectives.

At Orion, we’re responsible for distributing electricity to the homes and businesses across central Waitaha Canterbury, as we have done for more than 125 years. To continue providing the safe, reliable and resilient power supply that you depend on, we must invest more now.

Following the earthquakes, our priority was restoring the network and supporting regional recovery, with some renewal work deferred where safe and appropriate to do so. Now, it's critical to address these renewals to ensure we're ready to meet our community’s electricity needs, today and in future.

We also need to support population growth and strengthen our network to minimise the risk of significant power disruptions resulting from natural disasters.

Our country’s energy landscape is rapidly evolving. Additional investment by Orion will lay the foundation for a modern network that leverages smart infrastructure and technology, enabling customers to participate in decentralised electricity production and storage - while benefitting from the associated financial savings. This also supports the transition to an increasingly electrified economy, where electricity powers more of what we do every day.

A strong network will drive economic prosperity across our region, benefiting businesses, communities, and our customers - helping to create a positive future for central Waitaha Canterbury.

Planning our investment needs

Although additional investment will result in increased lines charges, it will help prevent even higher future costs from deferred investment while ensuring we can meet the service levels our customers expect.

However, we recognise the importance of balancing network performance with cost-effective spending, especially at a time when the cost of living is challenging for many.

In April, we shared our proposed investment approach in our 2025 Asset Management Plan Update, outlining how we plan to address these key areas in the coming years.

Challenges

• Asset renewals – Ramping up our asset renewal programme to ensure we can effectively manage safety risk across the network and maintain reliability.
• Growth – Increasing our network’s capacity to support forecast population, demand and economic growth, which is very strong in parts of our region.
• Resilience – Strengthening the network’s resilience to natural hazards, particularly earthquakes, to reduce the risk of major disruptions to the power supply during and after these events.
  
  

Opportunities

• Meeting future needs – Preparing for new technologies that support changing customer needs and customer choice.
• Improving efficiency – Taking advantage of innovations and integrating new tools and systems to improve our efficiency.

We believe this is a prudent and efficient investment approach that will benefit customers in the long term. As we refine this plan, we’re seeking feedback on it to ensure it aligns with the needs and expectations of our customers.

Have your say

We gathered customer feedback on our proposed approach over April and May through a consultation questionnaire. Next, we’re looking to engage more comprehensively with businesses and community organisations.

Electricity is essential to our lives and our economy, and this is your chance to provide feedback on our plans. Your input will help shape our final investment decisions, set to take effect from April 2027.

Email haveyoursay@oriongroup.co.nz to let us know if you’d like to speak to us or participate in an interview with our research partner.

Find out more about Orion’s proposed investment approach.

About Nigel Barbour

Nigel was appointed Chief Executive of Orion Group in July 2021. He brings more than 20 years of c-suite experience, including 14 years as CEO of two energy companies, where he has built high-performing teams and led them through significant periods of transformation.

He has in-depth knowledge of the energy sector, including the challenges of maintaining security and ensuring affordability in a highly renewable system.

Nigel currently chairs Electricity Networks Aotearoa, the Electricity CEO Forum, and the Energy Transition Sector Framework CEO Steering Group - a platform helping to shape the best possible energy transition for Aotearoa New Zealand.