Oliver Cable

I started out my apprenticeship with Kinetic Electrical carrying out a range of residential work for the first 8 months. This included:

• New home builds
• Upgrading of internal wiring, mains cables and new switchboard installations in existing homes
• Alterations and additions
• Heat pump installations
• CCTV system installs
• Temporary power connections
• Testing of full installations

These jobs helped teach me the foundations of electrical and helped me gain a better practical understanding of what was involved in the job. From here I was given the opportunity to work on an industrial project which is the work I have now spent my time doing till present. A few notable projects include:

• WPI Pulp/Paper Mill - DCS Upgrade (7 months)

This was an upgrade job on an existing plant. On this job we undertook the installation of new cable tray and other various cable support systems to accommodate new cabling which I helped pull in, label, test and terminate to instruments in the field. Being my first industrial job this was a good learning curve and was a great insight to the industrial field.

• WPI Pulp/Paper Mill - Pulp Press Replacement (3 weeks)

This job was a fast paced, high pressure job in which we replaced one of the plants two presses. We were contracted to decommission all the electrical associated with the old press. When it came to putting the new press I assisted in running new cables, terminating motors, testing, mounting new control panels and cabinets. This job also helped me develop the skills required to work in a fast paced, team environment.

• Ecogas Reporoa Construction Project (5 months)

Ecogas was NZ's first large scale food waste to bio-energy facility producing bio-methane. On this project I assisted in the installation of the mains cables for the plant as well as the terminations in the MCC and at LV side of the transformer. After this we constructed the underground earth grid system and the installation of lightning protection on site. Exothermic welding of the earth cables was used to construct the earth grid which I eventually became confident and capable in.

• Tauhara Geothermal Power Station Construction Project (22 months)

This is currently NZ's largest geothermal power station and was my first real large scale project in which I was on from start to finish. On this project I got a taste of just about everything in electrical construction all the way from site setup temporary power all the way though to commissioning.

• MSD Animal Health Upper Hutt Plant Extension(4 months)

MSD is a bacterial vaccine manufacturing facility where we worked in both the construction of the extension of the plant as well as work in the existing part of the plant. I was only bought on at the tail end of the project so was mainly involved in terminations/testing and commissioning. A large amount of this time was spent doing control panel modifications throughout different area's of the site.

• Ngatamariki Geothermal Power Station (Jan 2025 - Present)

I started on this site as the only electrician paired with mechanical team to begin work. I led the setup of the temporary site shed's and other temporary power for the site. From there I helped plan various cable routes and tray runs as well as completed testing of all the provided cable drums. At present I am leading a crew of four installing cable tray in the basement of the main switch room.

Between some of these major projects I spent my time on various other fill in jobs including plant shutdown maintenance, dairy farm work as well as commercial work in malls/shopping centres and other stores.