New TrustPower boss excited to lead 'nimble' firm

Vince Hawksworth

A former Genesis Energy manager who oversaw rapid retail expansion in the company is returning to New Zealand to head TrustPower after three years as chief of Tasmania's generation firm.

Vince Hawksworth, 50, will become TrustPower's chief executive in April.

He leaves Hydro Tasmania as the state government-owned business faces an investigation by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission over charging to an electricity retailer.

Hawksworth said the the inquiry followed a period of high industry-wide prices and was part of the "cut and thrust" of electricity markets.

He has been in the Tasmanian job for the past three-and-a-half years and was excited by the prospect of heading a "nimble" listed company.

"There's a lot of opportunity for TrustPower to grow - it's a renewable business."

The company is half owned by utilities investor Infratil, has hydro stations and wind farms throughout New Zealand and in Snowtown, South Australia. In New Zealand it is the fifth largest generator and fourth biggest retailer, with 220,000 customers.

Hawksworth was at Genesis as it was split from ECNZ and while he was retail manager the number of electricity and gas customers grew from 115,000 to 700,000 in six years as it acquired businesses.

"I think that whole period in the New Zealand electricity market was action-packed."

A few months before he started his job in Tasmania, the state was linked to the mainland with a power cable and went on to suffer a severe drought.

"The big challenge has been moving from a business run on an island to a business that is connected to a national electricity market in Australia and doing that in a period of unprecedented drought," he said.

"We were having to import a lot to keep the lights on in Tasmania when we would have liked to have exported at high prices."

He will start his new job after a major review of the New Zealand electricity sector. Details are being finalised and include a possible swapping of generation assets between companies, a new role for the Electricity Commission and financial penalties for generators which don't sufficiently allow for dry years.

Hawksworth said it would be a retrograde step to move away from fundamental market dynamics.

"From a distance one thing New Zealand has been able to achieve is keeping the lights on in a very hydro-based situation."

Hawksworth will replace Keith Tempest, who steps down at the end of the year after being chief executive for the past eight years.

VINCE HAWKSWORTH

* Age: 50
* Born in Britain.
* Career: Mining engineering background in Britain.
* Production manager at Huntly power station for ECNZ.
* Generation and retail general manager at Genesis Energy.
* Chief executive of Hydro Tasmania, Australia's biggest renewable generator.