Letter to the Editor: Tuesday January 24, 2017

Shaw a very special CEO

How about this for a random act of corporate kindness?

Top Energy's CEO Russell Shaw, who I had not met in person but had heard speak at Rotary, contacted me. This was late last year. I was standing for mayor of the Far North.

Shaw had picked up on some comments I had made at election meetings about what I considered appallingly long and far too frequent power cuts.

He said that regardless of the outcome of the vote, he would like to take me on a tour of the network. After I lost, I said yes to the invite, and we did it.

Travelling in his Mitsubishi hybrid electric SUV, we looked at various installations across the Far North, including what Shaw and his board had in mind for maximising the energy output of the Ngawha geothermal field by establishing an industrial park.

He explained to me also that Top Energy had inherited from former power boards and the government a network that was woefully neglected and run down.

This, he said, was the reason for some of the outages. Catching up on maintenance and renewal takes years.

The government-owned Transpower line that feeds the energy from the national grid into the Top Energy network is also run down.

Shaw intends to mount a campaign about that aimed at government.

I write this because I feel that a CEO that's prepared to put over half a day into some unknown like me is a very special CEO indeed.

After the briefing and the tour, and it was a hot day, I was never happier about buying a guy a beer in a well known hostelry.

PETER GILL
RD2 Kerikeri