Contact Energy : Infratec team up to power business >

Power to the businesses

Contact Energy and Infratec are teaming up to help more Kiwi businesses make the leap to low carbon energy by offering them end-to-end renewable generation, battery storage, and energy management solutions.

Businesses are ideally placed to take advantage of renewable energy products like rooftop solar because their period of highest energy use occurs when these technologies produce the most power, potentially offering savings on their energy bills.

Other benefits from on-site generation and storage can include greater visibility into power use, and greater flexibility with a choice between using, storing, or selling excess energy back into the grid. By incorporating battery storage, business can also increase their resilience in the event of power cuts.

With their respective expertise, Contact and Infratec believe the time is right to deliver industrial grade solutions that increase resiliency.

'At a business case level, distributed generation is starting to stack up for some customers, but it is still a new market that has a way to go before it reaches maturity. We're excited to be collaborating with customers and with Infratec to be able to deliver distributed energy solutions that are sustainable: low emissions, cost effective, and reliable', says Contact's Chief Generation & Development Officer James Kilty.

'Our experience in challenging markets from Afghanistan to Kiribati has cemented our credentials as one of the leading renewable energy, high voltage networks and alternative fuels providers,' says Infratec Acting CEO Luke van Zeller.

'We're now ready to put this expertise to use in New Zealand, particularly in the solar and battery storage space, making the shift to renewable energy as seamless and painless as possible.'

Looking further out, as scale continues to build, Contact will link distributed energy business customers into its demand flexibility platform, giving the company the ability to buy their stored power for use during periods of high electricity demand.

Contact is already trialling coordinating distributed assets through its demand flexibility platform in Wellington and Christchurch, having linked a number of solar and battery enabled households, to assess the viability of technology at a retail level. The two-year trial is expected to be completed in mid-2019.

Media Contact:
Jason Krupp
Senior Communications Advisor
[e-mail]
021 701 898

About Contact
Contact is one of New Zealand's largest listed companies. We keep the lights burning, the hot water flowing and the BBQ fired up for over half a million homes and businesses across New Zealand. We're committed to a sustainable energy future for New Zealand. To us, this means balancing our commitment to lower carbon, renewable energy, while maintaining reliable economic access to energy for our customers. We generate electricity from hydro, geothermal and gas and have one of the most flexible generation portfolios in the country.

About Infratec
Infratec is one of New Zealand's leading renewable energy companies with a portfolio of projects in New Zealand, the Pacific and ASEAN regions, We can offer end to end consulting, design, development, construction, finance and operation capability in small and large scale grid connected and off-grid renewable energy systems and low to high voltage distribution networks.