Who we are
Key facts
Aruhiko Power Engineering Excellence Trust (PEET) is:
- a unique 23+ year industry-academic partnership since its inception in 2002
- a whole-of-industry response to engineering workforce development for Aotearoa New Zealand’s energy future
- a provider of scholarships that has awarded over 300+ scholarships to a value of over NZD $1M, to electrical engineering students (up to and including 2025) to support their journey into the workforce.
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About the Trust
The Aruhiko Power Engineering Excellence Trust (PEET) is a not-for-profit charitable entity established in 2002 by industry and academia to ensure a pipeline of power engineering talent.
The Trust Partners are the Electricity Supply Industry (enabled through industry members) and the University of Canterbury.
Our industry membership represents all sectors of the electricity industry, including generation, transmission, distribution, contracting and consulting. It is hoped a new manufacturing sector will be introduced in 2025.
Mission
We inspire and enable tomorrow's power engineering talent by sharing responsibility, knowledge and opportunity across academia and industry.
Vision and Purpose
The Trust’s vision is to empower those who will shape Aotearoa New Zealand’s energy future.
The purpose of the Trust is to encourage students to study power engineering and to promote research and innovation in power engineering.
Our name
In 2021 we incorporated Aruhiko in to our name, Power Engineering Excellence Trust, because of our kaupapa to ensure a pipeline of power engineering talent:
- ARU - To pursue, to explore and to pioneer. Not only are we pursuing excellence, but we also trailblaze new paths as we inspire and enable our future power engineering talent. The word 'aru' speaks to the pursuit of excellence as a continual process.
- HIKO - To be electrical, to be switched on, to be powered. Hiko also means to stimulate and activate. We know that our organisation is the coming together of many sectors of the electricity industry, and our organisation speaks to the importance of activating these many sectors and stimulate new talent coming through.
- ARUHIKO - To pursue and trailblaze electrical pathways. In other words, ARUHIKO means supercharging and powering up our mission; "to inspire and enable tomorrow’s power engineering talent by sharing responsibility, knowledge and opportunity across academia and industry."
Our origin story
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Professor Pat Bodger was appointed to the Chair of Electric Power Engineering at University of Canterbury’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1999 based on his reputation and experience in leading power engineering education and research.
In the early 2000’s, Pat was concerned about the steady decline in student numbers in the department’s undergraduate power engineering programme. This was mirrored in the Faculty of Engineering’s unease with the long-term financial viability of the programme due to the continuing lack of students.
These concerns prompted Pat to publish an opinion piece in the local Christchurch newspaper in 2001 entitled ‘The real electricity issue is people’. His plea was for recognition of the impact that the continued decline and potential cancellation of the power engineering programme at University of Canterbury would mean for industry and consumers alike.
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This article prompted the mobilisation of support and funding from the electricity supply industry driven by Keith Turner (then CEO of Meridian Energy). Keith quickly impressed on a number of key power industry leaders as to the necessity of investing in and promoting education and research in power engineering in New Zealand.
This quickly resulted in the incorporation of the Power Engineering Excellence Trust (PEET) in July 2002 (with Keith as the inaugural Chair) and the launch of the Electric Power Engineering at the EEA conference in 2002.
The first scholarships were awarded in 2003 with a cohort of 10 recipients from 2nd and 3rd Pro, the first female undergraduate recipients were awarded in 2004 with the first domestic postgraduate recipient in 2006. The rest they say is history and power engineering students now make up a significant proportion of each electrical and electronic engineering graduate class.
