2017 WEL Networks
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Annual Report
14
of this project will see the development of a community
solar initiative. 76kW of solar panels are being installed on
the WEL Depot roof and will be connected behind WEL’s
meter so that the energy generated can either be used for
WEL consumption or, as a proof of concept, exported to
the network as a solar product.
Due to the predicted significant increase in electric
vehicles on New Zealand roads we have expanded
our electric vehicle infrastructure by installing an
additional three electric vehicle fast chargers; one each
in Te Kauwhata, Raglan, Waikato Innovation Park with
a fourth scheduled for central Hamilton mid 2017.
PRICING
WEL updated its tariffs this year to emphasise the
importance of cost reflectivity and customer education.
Large Commercial customer pricing was enhanced
through changing the peak metric to more closely align
to a customer’s impact on our network and introducing
a capacity charge. These changes were implemented to
improve the cost reflectivity at an individual customer level.
A pamphlet detailing the changes was sent out to all Large
Commercial customers to increase understanding of the
tariffs and the possible impact on customers.
REGIONAL GROWTH
The Waikato has continued to experience significant
growth in the housing and commercial sectors and WEL
is playing a key role in supporting that development. This
year we produced over 1,100 quotes for potential new
work on our network representing a 30% increase on
the 12 months prior. This sustained demand for network
connections and reconfiguration has resulted in longer lead
times for completing work than we would have liked. To
address this issue we increased our staff numbers in our
Customer Works team and have recently introduced an
online application system for new work requests on WEL’s
network aimed at providing greater efficiency for WEL and
our customers.
We are playing a major role in the construction of the
Waikato Expressway, undergrounding and relocating WEL
assets along the Hamilton, Rangiriri and Huntly sections
with additional work programmed for the Long Swamp
section in the 2017/18 financial year.
RELIABILITY
WEL continues to perform strongly when compared with
other lines companies for reliability. The 2016 benchmarking
results show WEL was ranked in the lowest quartile for
outages. WEL’s regulated SAIDI result for 2016-17 was
82.63 minutes against a target of 78.55; over target by
4.08 minutes. Unfortunately this result was impacted mainly
by the number of car versus pole incidents and significant
storm events throughout the Waikato.
ASSET MANAGEMENT PLAN
WEL’s Asset Management Plan (AMP) underwent its annual
update earlier this year. Due to the significant changes in
the previous two plans only minor changes were required
this year. The 2017 update covers the planning period from
1 April 2017 to 31 March 2027 and provides the latest
information relating to our key initiatives, performance,
forecast network and non-network investments and our
long-term strategies for asset management. A copy of the
latest AMP can be found on WEL’s website.
IN SUMMARY
Overall the 2016-17 year has been an exciting one for WEL with a number of initiatives being successfully progressed.
Thank you to the Board of Directors for your support this year and especially to our Chairman, Margaret Devlin,
who will be standing down from her role at the AGM after ten years on the WEL Board.
Finally, at this year’s Waikato Business Awards I had the opportunity to formally acknowledge the hardworking
and committed team at WEL Networks. To reiterate that message, I believe that success as a Chief Executive is
a reflection of amazing team effort and I feel privileged to lead the WEL team.
