About Us

The network is 100% owned by Eastland Community Trust – a community trust where the income beneficiary is the community, and the capital beneficiary is Gisborne District Council. In simple terms, that means the network assets are owned by the community.

The network covers a challenging and expansive area spanning some 12,000 square kilometers much of which is very remote and covers some tough terrain. With nearly 25,500 connections to customers throughout the region, the network has a relatively low average customer/connection density,of only seven connections per kilometre.

The network, which has fixed assets of around $110 million, actually comprises three networks – Gisborne, Tuai and Wairoa,- which have separate connections to Transpower’s transmission grid. The Wairoa and Tuai networks were purchased from Wairoa Power in 1999.

The majority of the network is comprised of 3,280 kilometres of overhead reticulation, with a further 380 kilometres underground reticulation installed mainly in the urban areas of Gisborne and Wairoa. There are 3700 substations throughout the network.

The bulk of the electricity distributed by Eastland Network is supplied from the national grid, with some supplemented through embedded generation, the majority of which is owned by Eastland Generation Limited. The network has a total maximum demand in the order of 57MW and distributes nearly 300GWH of electricity per year.