Building connections at energy symposium

Showcasing Southland business and learning about possibilities in the new energy sector have been among the aims for a group from Southland attending a symposium in Australia.

The two-day Hunter New Energy Symposium in Newcastle, New South Wales, ended on Thursday and was a chance to hear about the hydrogen and energy industries, Brendan Gray said.

“Hopefully it could lead to collaboration and partnership with Southland business.”

Gray is the manager of the Southland Engineering and Manufacturing Cluster, which was established with government funding last year to pool expertise and win national and international contracts. He was accompanied to the annual symposium by Daryl Cook, of EIS Group; Hoani Cooper, of NES Ltd; Dean Addie, also from the Southland cluster; and Craig McKenzie, of HWR Hydrogen.

The event drew industry leaders from Australia and New Zealand, and Gray and Addie had speaking roles.

Gray said it was too early in the “energy journey” to establish contracts, and at this stage the aim was to make connections. An app provided by the symposium organisers would make it easy for attendees to continue building relationships, he said.

“The Australian Government has been extremely proactive [with] investing into new energy, and it’s not just the government that is investing in the Hunter region.”

However, Gray noted that regions across Australia seemed to be doing their own thing. He believed a more collaborative approach could provide, for example, greater power of purchase for such things as buying batteries.

The cluster was working to attract companies into Southland and to make engineering companies based in the region less reliant on the aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point.

Southland Business Chamber chief executive Sheree Carey has estimated that 750 people were employed at the smelter, with 2500 jobs and more than 60 Southland engineering firms directly related to it.

The smelter’s majority owner, Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, recently said it was working as quickly as it could to decide on the smelter’s future. Rio Tinto’s low-cost power-supply contracts with Meridian and Contact Energy were due to expire in December this year.

Last week, Contact Energy chief executive Mike Fuge said power agreement negotiations with Rio Tinto had been positive, and he expected that a deal to continue operations at Tiwai would eventuate.

Gray said: “What happens there [at Tiwai] is unknown, but hopefully we will know by the middle of the year.

‘’At the end of the day, if Tiwai continues, our initiative will run alongside it. We still want to grow the Southland economy; we cover education and vocation training for the next cohort of tradespeople.”

He said Southland’s housing affordability and its great lifestyle would draw people to live and do business there.