Invercargill business EIS has won the New Zealand electrical industry’s highest honour at the Master Electricians Excellence Awards 2017 – announced at Auckland’s Langham hotel on Friday 25 August.
The automation and electrical specialist, was a finalist in three categories for its exceptional work on Project Shotover, Queenstown’s wastewater treatment plant upgrade.
It was named as winner of the Skills Industrial Automation Award and the overall Master Electricians Excellence Award which exemplifies excellence in the electrical industry.
Held every two years, the awards represent industry recognition of the very highest achievement of electrical contractors in applying innovative solutions and quality workmanship in challenging electrical projects.
EIS provided the full design and build service for the electrical and automation components of the state-of- the-art plant.
Judges said of the project: “In every area there was exceptional planning, workmanship, innovation, and initiative – all attributes displaying and exemplifying excellence.
“The ingenious automation, and excellent workmanship, meant they had a clean run to the trophy.”
EIS senior engineer Charlie Turner said the plant incorporated a very high level of automation and several areas were customised specifically to meet the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s requirements for energy and process efficiency.
“We integrated many items, from the full capacity standby generators to large dewatering centrifuges and remote monitoring and control systems,” said Mr Turner.
“The plant has run automatically, without any failures, since commissioning.”
Master Electricians Chief Executive Neville Simpson said there had been a record number of entries for the awards this year, including a huge increase from the Canterbury region. Judges visited a wide range of projects before narrowing down the18 finalists across six categories.
“The awards are a great opportunity for businesses to showcase their workmanship and innovation, and be given the chance to compete with industry peers,” said Mr Simpson.
EIS CEO Dean Addie was in Auckland with some of the team that delivered the project and was elated with the win. “It is true that eis had a great team working on this project and I wish to thank them all for their dedication but in reality, it is all the people that work at EIS that make the dream work. Let's not forget the unsung heroes in our businesses that support what we do. This is for the whole team at EIS for delivering awesomeness.”