Documentary premiere celebrates NZ’s electricity pioneers

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
22 November 2017

Documentary premiere celebrates New Zealand’s electricity inventors and pioneers

From the Southern Hemisphere’s first hydroelectric power station to electric postie wagons, New Zealanders have made some big contributions to electric innovation over the past century and more.

This innovative spirit is captured in Powering New Zealand, a new five-part documentary series that uncovers the untold stories of New Zealand’s electricity inventors and pioneers.

The first episode premiered to an industry audience last night at Hamilton’s Meteor Theatre and is now available to view online at whiteboardenergy.co.nz.

The five-part documentary highlights a wide range of electricity innovations with home-grown stories about hydroelectric power generation, the development of the electric fence, the world’s first electric-powered house, and more.

The documentary’s creators and hosts Stephen Batstone and David Reeve say the series is a passion project, drawing on their combined 40 years of experience in the electricity industry.

“We wanted to tell the stories of the people involved in getting New Zealand’s electricity industry – in its widest sense - off the ground,” says Batstone.

“There are some great stories and some really interesting people out there who have been largely forgotten. We wanted to bring these people to our national consciousness by saying, hang on, these people are actually worth celebrating and we can learn a lot from them.”

The episode unveiled last night, titled The Powerboard of Fame, looks at how Otago’s booming gold mining industry helped create New Zealand’s first hydroelectric power station in the 1880s, and some of the forgotten characters who helped – George Bullen and Walter Prince.

Bullen installed an electricity generator at the bottom of a cliff near an Otago mining settlement, creating the iconic hydroelectric power station. The settlement became known as Bullendale, and the gold mining operation was the first in the first in the world to be powered by electricity.

Electrical engineer Prince, sent from the UK to investigate New Zealand’s growing electric lighting industry, not only designed Bullendale but also built Reefton’s hydroelectric power station. Reefton became the first town in the southern hemisphere to be lit with electricity.

Future episodes will examine the contributions of many more innovators, among them some “real characters”, says Batstone.

“One of the unsung heroes we feature is Lloyd Mandeno. He isn’t someone you typically think of when it comes to electricity innovation, but he was right up there with Thomas Edison,” he says.

Mandeno was born at Rangiaowhia, near Te Awamutu, in 1888 and was an advocate for hydroelectricity for homes in the 1920s.

“He also invented the world’s first electric hot water cylinder in the 1920s, which many homes around the world and in New Zealand rely on for heating hot water.”

Mandeno’s all-electric house features in an upcoming episode, along with his single-wire earth return (SWER) power line, which enabled rural areas around the world to get cost-effective electricity.

Kiwi engineers and their contributions to New Zealand’s world-leading hydroelectricity industry are part of upcoming episodes, along with the development of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power lines and geothermal and renewable energy.

“It’s not all about the past, though,” says Reeve. “The documentary also charts the journey of Hamilton’s Gallagher company into the global technology firm it has become, and we look at New Zealand’s giant geothermal turbines and super productive windfarms.”

Both Batstone and Reeve see Powering New Zealand as an effort to preserve history and to inspire people about what’s possible with the future of electricity.

“When we were researching we found that even people in the industry weren’t aware of this fascinating heritage,” says Reeve. “So we want people to see these stories and see that we’ve achieved some pretty massive things on a global scale in the past, and we’re still doing it, so what’s to stop us from making it a habit?”

To find out when new episodes are available, and to contribute to the series, like the Powering New Zealand Facebook page: Facebook.com/PoweringNewZealand

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