meet your executive committee - Chantelle bramley

It’s only been a few months since you joined the EEA Executive Committee but what do you see as the unique value the EEA brings to the sector?

The EEA has a reputation for thought leadership and constantly challenging the sector to do better – to keep that excellence focus front of mind particularly across areas like safety and asset management. As we look to electrify our economy having an organisation that helps the sector remain focused on these core competencies and supports dialogue around the future needs is hugely valuable. The EEA is also one of the truly cross-sectoral organisations – bringing together all parts of the electricity industry. That diversity of perspectives is also very important in this period of change. Ultimately, to deliver a cost-effective transition for consumers, we’re going to need a wide range of solutions and business models.

What are you hoping to achieve while in this role?

I think it’s important that I bring a transmission and system operations lens into the Committee’s discussions. Transpower plays an important role in the sector and we’re keen to sharing our thinking and expertise with the broader industry. This knowledge share runs two ways though so I’m very much looking forward to understanding the broader issues and opportunities – and take that back into Transpower so we can better support the sector. Being part of the EEA and the Committee specifically is also a great way to get to know the people who make this sector work so I’m looking forward to deepening those connections.

You joined Transpower around 18 months ago, but built your career overseas – what inspired the move?

I’m originally from Australia but my parents were both born in NZ. I spent lots of school holidays in Dunedin and Central Otago so have always had a close connection with my NZ roots. With almost 20 years in the electricity industry, my career has taken me to the UK, Canada, and the US before moving back to Australia in 2014. I think like many people, Covid really changed my priorities and while I’d always had an affection for New Zealand, I’d never lived here. The opportunity with Transpower offered a role in transmission – which was one of the few parts of the sector I hadn’t worked in – and that, with the combination of exposure to the complexities of managing System Operations and being NZ-based, was too hard to turn down. So far my husband and three kids are settling in well and the Transpower team has been amazing.

What advantages does our sector have over our trans-tasman colleagues, and vice-versa? What could we apply here that the Aussies are doing really well?

If there’s one thing I’d love to see New Zealand doing more of is taking advantage of its size – yes, we’re small but being small should make us more nimble and able to progress things more quickly. In Australia you have the complexity of different layers of government being responsible for different things and it has created significant challenges for progressing an energy transition on the scale we’re currently facing. New Zealand doesn’t have that complexity – we could literally get the key decision makers in one room and get things done! In terms of what we can learn from Australia, they are much more pragmatic about their role in the global landscape. They know they’re small in the global scheme of things so tend to be more aggressive in getting what they can from their allies - pushing for domestic supplier status in key areas of the US Inflation Reduction Act, for example, was a real coup for Australia.

New Zealand seems hesitant to engage in these sorts of initiatives. I hope it’s not complacency but whatever it is I’d suggest New Zealand needs to get much more serious about how it will play in the global race to decarbonise.

What motivates you personally and resulted in you taking this leadership role for the industry?

I’m a terrible electricity geek – my kids are always complaining about how many photos I take of transmission towers (and wind turbines to be fair) – but I just love the grittiness of this sector. It’s got everything – cool technology, regulatory issues, political drama and most importantly, it’s a critical service we provide. That sense of purpose, that every day you can get up and make a real difference to the quality of life in New Zealand I find very motivating.

Being part of the EEA is another way of supporting that purpose and as an added bonus, I knew that I’d learn a lot from the great team at the EEA and from the Executive Committee members – so it wasn’t a hard decision.