Northpower takes out major industry safety award at recent power conference
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Names of Northpower staff in photograph receiving Award: Brownie Wijohn, Tom Nopera, Don Stock, Vern Rosieur and Tony
Doyle (Absent were Andre Watts and Keith Miller)
Media Release
21 June, 2006
Northpower takes out major industry safety award at recent power conference
Northpower’s innovative ‘Driving Safety Through Coaching’ approach to safety awareness by using coaches won it the 2006
EEA Industry Safety Award at last weekend’s Electricity Engineers’ Association’s (EEA) annual conference at SkyCity,
Auckland.
“The use of coaches as a company-wide resource is a brave decision as it reduces front line capability in the short term
but long term provides real impetus as it demonstrates the company’s commitment to the individual learner and excellent
work practices,” says Richard Gibbons, EEA Executive Member. “The Northpower entry provided a sound mechanism to deal
with the industry-wide issues of managing trainees and skill shortages.”
Auckland’s Tyco Electronics Sunil Kumar won the IET Best Paper Presentation on ‘Reliability, Improvement and Asset
Protection of Electrical Power Networks by Mitigation of Fauna Induced Outages’; Auckland’s ElectroPar won the Best
Trade Exhibition Stand with its Mobile Generator Connection Unit (MGCU) designed to improve the service and security of
power supply to customers; while the 2006 EEA University of Auckland scholarship awards were awarded to students Daniel
Tombleson and Usha Ganesham.
Other winners included Canterbury’s Orion NZ’s Steven Hirsch winning the Best Paper Award (Member) for his presentation
on ‘Resonant Earthing’ while the University of Canterbury’s Dr Neville Watson won Best Paper Award (Non-Member) for his
paper on ‘Compact Fluorescent Lamps’. Two scholarships were also awarded to University of Canterbury students Garry
Heyes and Michael Lazelle.
The EEA conference was opened by the Acting Minister of Energy, the Hon Trevor Mallard, who delivered an address on the
development of a National Energy Strategy and commented on the current review of Climate Change. Keynote speeches from
Dr Ralph Craven, CEO Transpower, and Dr Keith Turner, CEO Meridian Energy, focussed on strategic and supply issues
within the power industry.
International keynote speakers were Dr Jonathan Russell, an Economic Regulatory Consultant (UK), and distinguished
lecturer and senior IEEE member, William J Ackerman (USA). Forty five wide ranging technical papers were presented by
New Zealand and international speakers. Fifty eight companies exhibited products and services.
Over 500 delegates, visitors and exhibitors involved in the generation, transmission, distribution, retail and
utilisation sectors of the New Zealand electricity supply industry attended this premier event. Detailed information is
available on the EEA website: www.eea.co.nz
ENDS