Finalists in the Engineering and Technology Excellence Awards announced early

We couldn’t wait any longer and are today thrilled to announce the finalists in the 2026 Engineering and Technology Excellence Awards.

Our judges Dr Richard Templer, CE of Engineering NZ; Dr Marcos Pelanur, CE of EECA, and Board Director Elena Trout made their decisions earlier this month, and it’s been a struggle to keep this to ourselves! 

So today we are announcing the 15 finalists identified across our five categories, from the 66 nominations received. 

Chair of the judging panel Dr Richard Templer said the judges all thoroughly enjoyed the process and the chance to learn about a wide range of work that may otherwise have stayed behind the scenes. 

“Across the nominations we found wonderful projects delivering positive outcomes for our communities. This was a great learning experience for all the members of the judging panel,” he said. 

“The projects demonstrated a strong cohort of innovative, committed, and dedicated people in the transmission sector, all working towards enabling New Zealand’s energy future.”

“Every nomination showed positive change which made it a challenge to select the finalists however, the 15 we identified provided clearly defined qualitative and quantitative outcomes and impact, which made those projects stand out.” 

Our three finalists in each category are:

Engineering for value

A team, individual or organisation that has applied best‑practice design and value principles to improve outcomes, as demonstrated by the greatest whole‑of‑life net benefits.

1. AECOM, Aurecon, Do Consulting, Niko Engineering, Value at Speed, XER Graphic Design and Transpower: Power transformer in-bund oil containment design.
2. Niko Engineering: The Islington 66kV circuit breaker replacement project.
3. Transpower: Engineering value from smarter data platform design.

Innovating for outcomes

An engineering or technology initiative that has redefined how things are done, delivering valuable and enduring impacts. 

1. Transpower: Invisible risk to managed risk – redefining asset management.
2. Transpower: Safer, scalable digital switching execution in Transpower control rooms.
3. Transpower: Seeing the unseen: reducing risk, time and cost

Investing in our industry’s future

A team, individual or organisation making a bold investment in engineering or technology to deliver high-value outcomes for the future of the industry.  

1. DIALOG Fitzroy: Closing the loop. Transforming abrasive blasting through circular resource recovery.
2. ElectroNet Consulting: Graduate programme.
3. Northpower: Building future inspection capability for New Zealand's transmission work.

Partnering for success

An engineering or technology initiative that delivered significant value, where partnering was essential to achieving a successful outcome. 

1. Contact Energy, Fonterra and Transpower. Delivering electrification at Ohangai through partnership.
2. Hayes Metals, Macaulay Metals, Phoenix Recycling and Transpower. From grid assets to new value. A national recycling partnership.
3. Northpower: Overcoming complexity. A partnership driven engineering solution at joint bay 11.

Solving complex challenges

A team, individual or organisation that tackled a complex engineering or technology challenge and delivered an elegant solution, embedding both the solution and lessons learned into practice. 

1. APD Global, Calibre, Heron Construction and Transpower: Marine tower foundations - neither land nor sea. 
2. Transpower: Building a resilience capability to mitigate solar flares impacts.
3. Transpower: From complexity to confidence. Future-ready cost allocations for grid investments. 

Read more about each of the nominations here

This year’s winners will be announced at the Awards dinner and celebration on Wednesday 14 October.

Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations and congratulations to our finalists. We look forward to celebrating with everyone in October. 

About the Awards

The Engineering and Technology Excellence Awards are for transmission engineering and technology specialists working for or with Transpower – our consultants, service providers, contractors and sub-contractors that we work closely with. 

At the core of what we do in Transpower sits engineering and technology work. As the owner and operator of New Zealand’s national electricity transmission system we rely on engineering solutions and use of technology to solve complex challenges, improve the ways we work, raise our standards and deliver better outcomes for the people we serve. 

The Awards occur every second year and are the highest accolades in New Zealand's electricity transmission sector. We look forward to our people and our wider whānau getting involved. 

We want to shine a light on these people and teams so we can learn from them and celebrate their work.