Electricity industry invited to 'invest for tomorrow'

Electricity industry invited to 'invest for tomorrow' at major annual event

New Zealand's electricity supply industry gathers for their annual conference 18-20 June at Skycity Auckland, with the theme; People process and plant – invest for tomorrow'.

The Electricity Engineers Association conference is expected to attract over 500 delegates from around New Zealand and overseas. They will be able to attend keynote addresses by New Zealand and international speakers, 85 technical presentations and papers, a panel discussion, networking events and trade exhibition.

Keynote presenters include; Alison Andrew, new CEO of Transpower, expert in smart grid coordination Dave Openshaw of UK Power Networks, chairman of CIGRE's international substation committee from Australia, Terry Krieg and leading exponent of process safety, Doug Wilson of Scottish Power.

“This is the perfect year to be inviting the industry to invest for tomorrow with the theme of people, process and plant,” says Peter Berry, executive director of conference organisers the Electricity Engineers Association.

“The event captures the key industry challenges; ensuring our current assets and aging plant continue to provide efficient, secure and safe power supply to our end users; identifying and implementing innovative ideas and technology, new processes, markets and process improvement which will make our industry safer, more efficient and responsive to customer needs; and developing new talent to meet our future challenges.”

The Friday afternoon session is dedicated to a special panel discussion; Improving safety through partnerships. “With the changing legislative and regulatory environment and a strong focus on improving safety in our industry, we can expect insights and lively debate from panelists including keynote Doug Wilson, Gordon McDonald CEO of WorkSafe NZ, Lloyd Richards from one of the largest contractors in the industry and Bob Taylor, chair of the EEA's Safety Strategy and Policy Group,” Peter Berry says.

“To extend the knowledge sharing and networking benefits of the EEA conference, we have organised a number of workshops running just before the event.”

Workshops will focus on technical professional development issues including asset management and power system faults.

Industry suppliers have again strongly supported the trade exhibition with 113 stands representing over 80 organisations providing technology, equipment and services to electricity industry. The major event sponsor is PSC Power Consultants.

More details on the EEA Conference 2014 are available from; http://confer.co.nz/eea2014/

ENDS

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