Navigating tomorrows energy - Powerco releases Integrated Report 2026

Powerco has released its Integrated Report 2026 outlining how the dual-energy distributor delivered value over the 2026 financial year (1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026), and its priorities and targets for FY27 and beyond.

Navigating tomorrow’s energy shares how the company is charting a course through the uncertainty of the energy transition by focusing on sustainable network investment.

“Electrification is happening more slowly than forecast driven by economic conditions, while domestic natural gas supply is declining faster than expected as fields reach end-of-life and producers exit the market,” Chief Executive Jason Franklin says. 

“Sustainable network investment is key to successfully delivering the energy transition efficiently and affordably. So we’re carefully managing the pace of investment in the electricity network to support electrification without over-investing too far ahead of customer demand. On our gas network we’re prioritising the maintenance of our existing network in order to continue serving our existing residential and small business customers, while supporting industrial customers to assess decarbonisation pathways.”  

Highlights from the year covered in the report include: 

• Entering a conditional sale and purchase agreement for Firstlight Network.
• The establishment of the Customer Delivery Service to work directly with customers connecting to the electricity network. 
• Connecting Lodestone Energy’s 23MW Pāmu Rā ki Whitianga solar farm.
• Commissioning the first PowerHubs – designed to support remote communities during prolonged outages.
• Reaching front-end engineering design to investigate producing biomethane at the Manawatū Resource Recovery Centre.
• Winning the Wellbeing Award at the 2025 Energy Excellence Awards for its Leadership Development Programme based on Te Whare Tapa Whā.
• Implementing a low-voltage visibility platform as part of the evolution to becoming a distribution system operator.
• Working with the Katikati community to paint a substation mural. 

Key results include: 

• Keeping the energy flowing 99.9% of the time (equal to FY25)
• $377m spent on network investment (down $22m on FY25)
• 3,567 new customer connections (down 677 on FY25) 
• 89km net new line, cable and pipe (down 25km on FY25)
• 2,746 home solar connection applications (up 23% on FY25)
• Over 35MW new utility-scale solar connected.
• 2 PowerHubs installed to keep remote communities connected during outages.
• 67% positive incident reporting rate (near misses, push backs and hazard IDs) (up 19% on FY25)
• 60% electricity customer satisfaction (equal to FY25)
• 65 net promoter score for new gas connections (up 5 on FY25)

Powerco is reporting EBITDAF* of $415m for the year. The result was underpinned by the reset of electricity revenue allowances by its regulator the Commerce Commission. These came into effect 1 April 2025, and support higher levels of network investment as well as adjusting for changes in interest rates and operational costs since they were last set in 2020. 

 

* Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and fair value adjustments.