Electricity Ashburton

Electricity Ashburton Limited, trading as EA Networks is a co-operatively-owned electricity distribution company, based in Ashburton, New Zealand.The company was formed as Electricity Ashburton in 1995 after a reorganisation of the Ashburton Electric Power Board into a commercial company. It adopted its current trading name EA Networks in late 2012. It is unique among New Zealand electricity distribution companies in that it is the only company that is a cooperative, whereby shares in the company are owned by electricity consumers connected to its network.EA Networks owns and operates the subtransmission and distribution network in the Ashburton District (also known as Mid-Canterbury) in the South Island. Outside the Ashburton township (pop. 17,700), most of the district is rural with a high usage of irrigation, with the associated water pumps responsible for more than 85 percent of EA Networks' peak summer demand.EA Networks also owns a fibre optic cable network interconnecting its zone substations, which also offers broadband internet services to customers along the cable network. It also in a joint venture with Barrhill Chertsey Irrigation regarding an irrigation project covering of farmland in the north-eastern Ashburton district.HistoryReticulated electricity first arrived in Ashburton in 1908, when private company Craddock & Co established a 220-volt direct current electricity network to supply Ashburton township. The electricity was supplied from a 30 kW generator driven a steam traction engine. A network of 3300-volt and 230/400-volt alternating current lines were later established to supply the township.