Transpower Facilities Management

Our work also includes alliances with Transpower’s Electrical Station Service providers for some services. The total contract is shared equally between WSP and Downer.

Along with Transpower’s substation sites, WSP exclusively manages Transpower’s critical buildings (three Grid Operating centres) and their security access and control systems nationally.

The functional areas for this delivery include WSP’s Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Hamilton offices, working with the client and other alliance providers across the networks. The main programme of work is managed from the Hamilton Office.

Client brief/Project challenges

Transpower sites are designated as ‘high consequence environments’ – which means that there is a significant risk of harm, serious or fatal injury to workers when on the Transpower sites. For the company, ‘high consequence’ also indicates that there is a strong potential that an incident during physical works could lead to a loss of supply to the national grid. This would result in an interruption to New Zealand’s power network, and significant negative economic impact.

Our solution

WSP have developed a great deal of expertise in the planning, programming and management of physical works in high consequence environments. The WSP team works collaboratively with contractors and the client to identify all risks and engage a high level of health and safety process during any activity on site.

Our facilities management processes and systems support our network of specialist subcontractors that deliver a seamless maintenance service.

In addition, we also deliver a wide range of projects for Transpower.

Outcome/Client benefits

WSP have an extremely good health and safety record with Transpower. For both the 2019 and 2020 financial years, WSP and the contractors we engage, recorded a TRIFR score of zero.

Over the years, WSP has not only delivered the requirement of the contract, we are their number 1 service provider. We continue to search for innovative solutions,
factoring in sustainability and value for money.

List of primary services

WSP contributes expertise to the project in Estate Asset Management, including condition assessments, long-term maintenance planning, contributions to fleet asset strategies, policies, performance specifications and business cases. We also utilise Transpower’s asset management tool Maximo to support these functions and deliveries.

In addition, the WSP team manages all work internally through our own contract management system (CMS) and a contractor on-line reporting tool. We use this to manage our national network of long-term maintenance sub-contractors who perform the physical on-site works. Due to the high consequence nature of working on Transpower’s sites, health and safety has always been a priority and key requirement in the delivery of this service.

WSP provide a maintenance management sub-contracting model to Transpower. We engage local sub-contractors to carry out physical maintenance, while WSP provides expertise in oversight, administration, planning, quality control and co-ordination of suppliers to ensure planned and preventative maintenance is undertaken optimally and safely. We work collaboratively with Transpower, Downer, the site electrical service providers Broadspectrum, Northpower, Electrics and others, to ensure seamless ongoing operations of their national network.

WSP also provides a range of other services. These include, but are not limited to: Transmission Tower Corrosion Protection; Survey and Drone Inspection services; Resource Management, Planning and Consenting Advice; HV Electrical Design services; Civil and Geotechnical services; and Specialist Research via the WSP Research Team.

The geographic footprint for work we do is national, across the entire Transpower network. WSP predominantly manages the Upper North Island from Taupō North (plus Grid Operating centres in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch, and Security Systems nationally), while Downer manages the remaining sites in the Lower North and South Islands.

Each site is treated as critical to the National Power Grid network, requiring everyone who works on the site to not only be approved by Transpower, but be accredited with a range of minimum training requirements and a high level of delivery competency.

Transpower moved to this model of contracting to get a transformational change in their approach to asset management and asset optimisation, to inform their capital investment plan. WSP’s contract is measured by KPIs that were developed in collaboration with all parties that translate into risk and reward outcomes.