Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards reflect NZ’s changing energy sector

Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards entries

There were some fascinating award entries which really demonstrate the high pace of change that is taking place in our energy sector, as indeed it is in other areas such as the media, communications and retail.

Some examples…

• The electricity retail market now has a number of small and nimble providers who have points of difference against the “traditional” large retailers.
• There are plans underway to construct a nationwide network of charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs).
• Innovation in maintenance programmes to significantly reduce safety risks for electrical line mechanics.
• Innovation to vastly reduce energy costs in chilling plants in the food industry.

New Zealand has some unique attributes in the energy sector, both positive and negative.

On the positive side, our electricity supply is famously dominated by renewable resources such as hydro, geothermal and wind. That means that as more EVs go onto our roads, their fuel source is very green in comparison to other countries.

However, the relatively large size of our land mass, and the vast spread of our relatively small population over this large area, makes it expensive and inefficient to build new infrastructure such as EV charging stations. Until there is a strong network of charging stations, EVs will be adopted more slowly – the old chicken and egg conundrum.

EVs will make sense for some individuals and some fleets much sooner than others. In the case of Entec, we currently run a fleet of around 35 vehicles. Almost all of them travel 25,000 to 30,000 km per year, much on long journeys around the country. That would suggest it will be some time before we migrate from internal combustion-driven vehicles to battery power.

And to return to the start of this article, the winner of the Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards was… Shell Todd Oil Services, for its substantial 3D seismic survey programme over the Kapuni field.

The award’s sponsor – Energy Industrial Group – is predominantly made up of Taranaki-based service companies so we were very pleased to see one of the region’s oldest and largest operators be recognised with this award.