Contact Energy Partners with Plug and Play's Energy & Sustainability Innovation Platform

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Aug 14, 2019, 11:30 ET

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Contact Energy Limited, one of New Zealand's largest electricity generators and digital retailers, has partnered with global innovation platform, Plug and Play, to help drive business growth opportunities and accelerate their ambition to lead New Zealand's energy sector to a low-carbon future.

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"Our customers are looking for innovative solutions to help them transition sustainably to low-carbon energy," says Andy Sibley, GM of Innovation and Ventures at Contact Energy. "Technology has a significant role to play, so having access to Plug and Play's ecosystem of over 10,000 startups focused on transforming the energy sector will help us bring innovative technology solutions to fruition faster."

"It's important that we walk the talk when it comes to reducing emissions, so we also see this partnership as an opportunity to continue to do better ourselves. On our first visit to Plug and Play we met with Sapient, and are now looking at piloting their plug load management technology in our Head Office, ahead of making the solution available to our customers," says Sibley.

"Our sustainability mission aligns well with Contact Energy's commitment to reduce emissions. We are incredibly excited for this partnership and look forward to our collaboration on the front end of innovation in the energy sector," says Wade Bitaraf, Founder of Plug and Play's Energy & Sustainability division. "The Contact Energy Innovation Team have already demonstrated the agility and executive buy-in required to effectively build strategic partnership with the startups in the New Zealand market."

Contact Energy joins other renowned energy companies in the partnership, including Panasonic, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Tokyo Gas, Linde Group, Dominion Energy, Edison International, Rheem, Mitsubishi Electric, and ExxonMobil.

About Contact Energy
Contact Energy is the one of the New Zealand's largest electricity generators and digital retailers, providing electricity, natural gas, and broadband services to over 500,000 customers across New Zealand. We run 11 power stations across New Zealand with a strong focus on renewable energy. Around 80-85% of the electricity we generate comes from geothermal and hydro power plants and we've reduced our emissions from generation by over 50% since 2012 by building reliable, sustainable energy generation. In 2019, Contact became the first energy company in New Zealand to have its emission reduction targets approved by the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi).

About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since our inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 25 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 10,000 startups and 300 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup Protected ecosystem in many industries. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club and PayPal. For more information, visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com.

SOURCE Plug and Play