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Powerco

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4.3
  • 500 - 1,000 employees

Powerco Graduate Programs & Internships

  • Energy & Utilities

The Powerco story

Powerco is descended from New Plymouth Energy, Taranaki Energy, the Hawera Gas Company and the Wanganui Electric Power Board as well as others. The energy-market reforms of the 1990s resulted in New Zealand's power industry split up and, in the case of electricity and gas distributors, sold off.

New Zealand has two dual-energy distributors and Powerco is one of them. It's the country's largest electricity distributor by area and second-largest gas distributor. If you live on the North Island, you quite possibly get your electricity from Powerco, which it sources from Transpower. You may also get your gas via Powerco, which sources it from a natural gas transmission system.

Powerco is headquartered in New Plymouth. It has branch offices in Palmerston North, Wellington and Tauranga. In 2018, Powerco had NZ$2.3b worth of assets, generated NZ$477 million in revenue and paid out NZ$56.8 million of dividends. Two Australian companies own Powerco. AMP Capital has a 42 per cent stake and Queensland Investment Corporation has a 58 per cent one.

The culture

The two companies Powerco is owned by are on the record as supporting diversity and inclusion. For example, the CEO of AMP Capital has stated, "The role of inclusion and diversity in driving business performance is compelling – beyond that, it is simply the right thing to do." Given this, it can be assumed Powerco takes an equal-opportunity approach to recruitment and promotion.

Powerco's diverse 500 plus-strong team is guided by Ngā Tikanga – Our Way, which incorporates our values and ways of working with each other, our stakeholders and industry peers to get the best outcomes for our customers. We're committed to creating a workplace where our Powerco whānau can bring their best selves to work, supported by our partnerships with Champions of Change, Rainbow Tick and Gender Tick. Together, we are making progress to become a more inclusive and accessible workplace that reflects the communities we serve.

Social contribution

Powerco seeks to be "a reliable partner" that provides "safe, secure and resilient electricity and gas" to New Zealanders. It also aspires to deliver "New Zealand's energy future" while incorporating "good environmental, social and governance practices" into everything it does.

Particularly in recent years, Powerco has embraced sustainability. It now monitors its carbon footprint, seeks to minimise soil contamination when maintaining its substations and recycles much of the waste its operations generate. It also encourages staff and customers to use energy efficiently, promotes the use of electric vehicles and funds conservation initiatives.

Powerco encourages staff to get involved in their local communities and provides them with volunteer leave. Powerco supports good causes such as the Motor Neuron Disease Association, cycling safety programs, Manawatu's Rural Games, Masterton's Golden Shears event and the Powerco skate Park.

Recruitment Process

If you're considering a career at Powerco, you may wish to apply for a Summer Intern position. These are open to both university and high school students.

If you want to apply to Powerco's graduate programme, you'll need a Bachelor of Engineering (or a similar qualification), as well as the right to work in New Zealand. Powerco seeks to recruit people who are dedicated, passionate, curious, open-minded and team players.

To apply for a graduate or summer intern position, you'll need to wait for one to be advertised on the careers page of the company website. After that you should be ready for interviews and assessments.

Applications are usually open for about one month. Candidates are then shortlisted for interview which can take a couple of weeks. There will then be a couple of interviews before an offer may be made. 

If you get into the graduate programme, you'll have the opportunity to develop technical competence. You'll also be supported as you work towards becoming an Engineering New Zealand chartered engineer. You'll be partnered with both a senior engineer and a grad in the second year of the grad program. You could find yourself working in any or all of the following business areas:

  • Electricity development/planning
  • Design
  • Protection engineering
  • Asset fleet management
  • Network operations
  • Service delivery

Remuneration & Career Growth

Powerco is a company that cares for its employees. It promises all staff competitive salaries. Even better, graduates get a pay rise every six months to recognise their increasing contribution to the success of the business.

Powerco makes a four per cent company contribution to its workers' KiwiSaver accounts. Employees also get life and medical insurance, free fresh fruit, flu vaccinations and access to a range of health and wellness programs. As well as four weeks of annual leave and two weeks of sick leave from day one, staff are offered study, parental and volunteer leave.

Career prospects

Powerco staff are offered development opportunities in the form of coaching, on-the-job learning, project involvement and secondments, as well as internal and external courses. Staff have performance discussions with their managers at least once a year. After these discussions, they update their Learning & Development plan with reference to what strengths, weaknesses and development opportunities have been identified. Support is provided to staff who wish to undertake a qualification (as long as it is relevant to their role and useful to Powerco).

Powerco is a Professional Development Partner of Engineering New Zealand.

Graduate Reviews

Overall Score
4.3
Overall score based on 7 reviews
They Score Best in…
8.9
Diversity
8.6
Management
8.9
Work Hours
8.9
Diversity
8.6
Management
8.9
Work Hours
What Graduates Say About Them
  • Flexible hours, commute time, good community of graduates.
  • Get a variety of work and exposure to different teams within the business, which is really good experience.
  • Work time flexibility, surrounding people always being happy to help and are always friendly and welcoming.
  • Flexibility and supportive learning environment.
  • People I work with at very passionate and caring about the job they do.
  • Locations, and offices are mostly in regional cities
  • Work can come in waves so some weeks you will have a very large amount of work and some weeks you will have a small amount, its not consistent medium.
  • Very big and wide ranging with multiple business layers. Takes a while to get your head around all the different aspects of the organisation.
  • No cafeteria
  • Slow to react

Jobs & Opportunities

Locations With Jobs & Opportunities
  • New Plymouth, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Whanganui, Wellington
Hiring candidates with qualifications in
B
Business & Management
C
Creative Arts
E
Engineering & Mathematics
H
Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences
I
IT & Computer Science
L
Law, Legal Studies & Justice
M
Medical & Health Sciences
P
Property & Built Environment
S
Sciences
T
Teaching & Education

Graduate Success Stories


  • Graduate stories
My favourite thing about Powerco is the people. Having good relationships with people across the business has been great for me.

Joshua Van Rynbach

  • Graduate stories
My favourite thing about Powerco is the people. Having good relationships with people across the business has been great for me.

Joshua Van Rynbach

  • Graduate stories
One of the biggest perks at Powerco is the flexible working hours, this allows me to balance my work with my other interests like cricket, squash etc.

Vatsal Gajjar

  • Graduate stories
One of the biggest perks at Powerco is the flexible working hours, this allows me to balance my work with my other interests like cricket, squash etc.

Vatsal Gajjar

  • Graduate stories
My favourite thing about Powerco is the people. Having good relationships with people across the business has been great for me.

Joshua Van Rynbach

  • Graduate stories
My favourite thing about Powerco is the people. Having good relationships with people across the business has been great for me.

Joshua Van Rynbach

  • Graduate stories
One of the biggest perks at Powerco is the flexible working hours, this allows me to balance my work with my other interests like cricket, squash etc.

Vatsal Gajjar

  • Graduate stories
One of the biggest perks at Powerco is the flexible working hours, this allows me to balance my work with my other interests like cricket, squash etc.

Vatsal Gajjar


A Day In The Life Of


  • Day in the life

Ariki Tamou

I am the investment owner for several local transformer and switchgear replacements, so I need to confirm some scopes of works and iron out some design details before requesting for funds to be released.
  • Day in the life

Ariki Tamou

I am the investment owner for several local transformer and switchgear replacements, so I need to confirm some scopes of works and iron out some design details before requesting for funds to be released.
  • Day in the life

Joshua Van Rynbach

The Powerco office in New Plymouth is in a nice section of native bush, and commonly on nice days you will see groups of people walking around the perimeter of the office.
  • Day in the life

Joshua Van Rynbach

The Powerco office in New Plymouth is in a nice section of native bush, and commonly on nice days you will see groups of people walking around the perimeter of the office.
  • Day in the life

Ariki Tamou

I am the investment owner for several local transformer and switchgear replacements, so I need to confirm some scopes of works and iron out some design details before requesting for funds to be released.
  • Day in the life

Ariki Tamou

I am the investment owner for several local transformer and switchgear replacements, so I need to confirm some scopes of works and iron out some design details before requesting for funds to be released.
  • Day in the life

Joshua Van Rynbach

The Powerco office in New Plymouth is in a nice section of native bush, and commonly on nice days you will see groups of people walking around the perimeter of the office.
  • Day in the life

Joshua Van Rynbach

The Powerco office in New Plymouth is in a nice section of native bush, and commonly on nice days you will see groups of people walking around the perimeter of the office.