Welcome to the 2022 meeting of Meridian Energy. We would especially like to acknowledge those who've passed on in the last year, including thoughts are with them all. A big welcome to all of you who've been able to join us today. In 1848, my ancestor, Maopo, and other Ngāi Tahu chiefs negotiated South Island land deals so that the places that we operate in have a long history of occupation, and that it's important that these places continue to support the many generations who will come after us. We are proud to do our part in supplying energy to support Mana Whenua, businesses, and communities. Recognize and honor the past. We work to restore the health of the environment, and we continue to build our relationships with those who share these values and aspirations.
From Ruataniwha, Takapō, Pukaki, Ōhau, Waitaki, through to Manapōuri, we follow the waterways and the winds, honoring the past, making good use of New Zealand. Just as the ocean waves continuously break upon the shore, Meridian operates consistently for the benefit of the present.
I welcome you all to Meridian Energy's 2022 annual shareholders' meeting. To those who are joining us in person here in Eden Park in Auckland and to those joining us online. It's certainly nice to be able to see some faces physically for a change. You to evacuate the building. Your nearest safe exit is back down the entrance stairs for Gate G that you would have entered from or Gate F at the eastern end. To help guide you, there will be a green and white exit sign located. Attendees can watch a live webcast of the meeting, read the company's documents associated with the meeting. In addition, shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions and submit votes. For those of you attending the meeting virtually, on 0800 650 034.
For those of you who are in the room and wish to answer a question, if you could please come to the central microphone and state your name. Please note that while you can submit questions, they will be amalgamated together. Finally, if time constraints cause us a problem, and we run out of time, we may answer your questions via email. Voting today will be conducted by way of poll on all items of business in order to provide the resolutions. At that time, if you are eligible to vote at this meeting, you will be able to cast your vote under the Vote tab. Once the voting has been opened, the resolutions will allow votes to be submitted. To vote, simply select your voting direction resolution. Your vote will have been cast when the tick appears.
To change your vote, simply select Change Your Vote, and you have the ability to change your vote up until any time I declare voting closed. People attending the meeting who are not shareholders. Meridian board members present today from the right are Michelle Henderson, Jan Dawson. The world has become increasingly important as we take action to support the transition to a lower carbon country and become a vibrant contributor to a net zero world. As Aotearoa, New Zealand's largest 100% renewable energy company, we are conscious we have a leading role to play in decarbonizing our economy. This means that we need to take actions that make a material difference to the climate, our economy, and our customers, including delivering on our ambition to execute on our renewable development pipeline.
In the work that we do, we must move forward in strong partnership with Mana Whenua and support our customers and the communities we serve. Where we can make a difference, we will take the action required. While we're conscious that we compete fiercely with our sector peers, it is also important for the whole energy sector, its generators, retailers, distribution and transmission companies, along with regulators and government, to come together and cooperate to achieve the necessary outcomes. The challenge is significant, and none of us can achieve the outcome alone. The assets required to further electrify New Zealand are long life assets that take a number of years to build and consent. It's important that we start moving with pace now.
This year, we have made great strides in supporting our commercial and industrial customers to electrify, and we've provided energy solutions for our customers and invested in infrastructure to support the growth of electric vehicles. We've also made good progress in our work with Contact Energy to advance the Southern Green Hydrogen project. However, we know that there is much more that we need to do to truly help combat climate change. Given our size and scale, we know we can, and we must play a meaningful role in the energy transition and support New Zealand to thrive in a net zero future. To make sure that we're focused on what we need to achieve, we've developed and this year published our own climate action plan by which we will hold ourselves to account.
Our priorities to reduce our own emissions are focused in areas where we know we can make a meaningful difference. This includes our Half by 2030 program, where we have committed to halving our gross operational emissions by 2030 from a 2021 base. Where we cannot reduce our operational emissions right now, we're offsetting using Gold Standard Verified Emission Reductions. Our Forever Forests program, in which we've committed to planting 1.5 million trees by 2030, will act as a carbon sink for those emissions we cannot take out of our operations. This will leave a native forestry legacy which brings broader environmental and biodiverse benefits. As I mentioned earlier, we are also helping our customers transition away from fossil fuels by helping and investing with them to increase their use of renewable energy.
We're also sharply focused on the significantly increasing amount of renewable energy and therefore renewable energy developments that are required to support the country to thrive in a net zero emissions world. At Meridian, we know that if we do our share of the heavy lifting in the energy transition, we will need to build around 20 Harapaki-sized Wind Farms of the equivalent of around 175 MW each in the next 28 years. It's 20 generation facilities in 28 years. That is massive, so we need to pick up the pace and build momentum now, and we have tasked our own team with achieving an ambitious seven new renewable projects of scale on stream in the next 7 years. We do have a range of renewable development options in front of us, including wind, solar, and grid-scale batteries to help achieve our goals.
Our decision during the year to sell our Australian business, Meridian Energy Australia, also signaled a strategic shift to focus on future investments back in New Zealand. The growth potential in our domestic market is huge. We are pleased with the outcome of the sales process and note that this latest venture in Australia was successful for shareholders, yielding a net gain on sale of NZD 214 million and gross proceeds of more than NZD 750 million. These proceeds have been retained to cash and applied in the repayment of short-term debt to strengthen our balance sheet and will provide us the future capacity to further invest in New Zealand's decarbonization future.
On that point, it is worth noting that the required investment in new generation to get this country to net zero by 2050, in today's dollars, is at least NZD 30 billion. Now, that is generation alone. That doesn't allow for distribution and transmission investment. It's a sizable challenge in anyone's language. The overall capital budget for the country is huge. That investment will have to be paid for, whether by way of public or private funds, and in the end, we will all end up paying for it as consumers and taxpayers, most likely. However, aside from the climate in aspect, there is another prize that's worth considering. Whilst the investment required is considerable, ultimately, electrification of more services, particularly personal transport, is likely to end up in overall household energy bills due to transport fuel savings being a lot lower.
It's also worth noting that the electricity market regulatory settings have kept New Zealand in good stead to date. The facts are that after adjusting for inflation, the unit cost of electricity that Kiwi households pay today is lower than it has been in the last 10 years in real terms. Few, if any, countries can say that, and so we would argue it's best to keep the market settings as close as possible to those that apply today. We remain conscious, nevertheless, that many of our customers are facing significant cost of living increases, making it harder to make ends meet. We continue to offer wellbeing support for our most vulnerable customers and level pay for those customers who want to manage their energy bills evenly throughout the year. During the year, we also commenced an energy wellbeing pilot.
This is a program looking at reducing the impact of the four key drivers of energy hardship for our most vulnerable customers. That is financial, housing quality, energy supply, and energy efficiency. We've been pleased with the impact to date, and we're building the knowledge of in-house energy well-being specialists and partners to look at the whole picture for all individual customers. We wish to support them in progressing up the energy well-being spectrum. Our sponsorship of KidsCan is another means for us to support people suffering financial hardship by providing Kiwi kids in poverty a leg up to support them getting an education. 2 years ago, we increased the contribution we make to KidsCan to NZD 1 million a year, and we have assisted KidsCan to electrify their vehicle fleet as well. We're proud of the difference that this funding support makes to underprivileged children.
We also continue to plan for a possible exit of New Zealand Aluminium Smelters or NZAS, as we call it, from Southland in 2024. While we're aware that NZAS has publicly said that it is reconsidering its position, whether they stay or go remains uncertain at this time. The proposed closure of the smelter has created a generational opportunity and has seen Meridian increase momentum in terms of our development pipeline and the Southern Green Hydrogen project. We've done what we can to minimize the disruption to the local economy in Southland, negotiating an extended exit deal that encouraged this large regional employer, the smelter, to stay on for 3 years longer than it had initially proposed. That deal also bought the electricity sector time to enhance the transmission network in the lower South Island, and we're grateful to Transpower who have completed this work.
The deal enabled us to explore innovative arrangements with emerging industries that will change where and how our generation capacity is utilized. It has also bought time for NZAS to work on an environmental mitigation plan and its business model if it was to stay. We were pleased to see the government largely adopting the Climate Change Commission's recommendations and setting in place the country's first emission reduction plan and announce the first three carbon budgets, and they go through to 2035. Globally, we see carbon prices lifting, and that's no surprise. We continue to advocate for an effective and all-encompassing emissions trading scheme to support New Zealand's decarbonization journey, but we also recognize that well-targeted policy support will help build momentum.
We are keenly looking forward to participating along with the rest of the sector and the public in the development of New Zealand's energy strategy, knowing that the regulatory and policy environment will be a key factor in determining getting to zero emissions in 2050. As I've mentioned, a massive amount of investment and electricity infrastructure will be required to take place in the next 30 years. In that context, it is critical that the resource management framework appropriately allows consenting authority to balance localized environmental impacts and mitigations associated with renewable energy projects with the positive climate change benefits that those projects will bring. The new framework for consenting is emerging through various consultations, and we're actively engaging with relevant ministers and officials to ensure a balanced approach as part of the new resource management framework before it comes into force next year.
In relation to the board, our board is now more diverse than it has ever been, and it has the relevant capabilities to oversee Meridian's strategy and guide the business through the decisions that lie ahead. The appointment of Tania Simpson, in particular, will help us grow our iwi relationships. In July of this year, we also appointed Graham Cockroft to the board as a non-executive director. Graham Cockroft brings a strong finance and energy industry background to the board and will complement this board's skills and expertise. Graham Cockroft, who will be seeking support for election later in this meeting, joins us following the retirement of long-standing director Jan Dawson, whose term will conclude at the end of this meeting. Jan has made an outstanding contribution to Meridian over the past decade, right from listing.
We would genuinely be sorry to see her go and retire, but nevertheless, we wish her well. Jan, thank you so much. We've also had a few changes in our executive team, and I expect that Neal will take you through some of that a bit later. I just wanna finish by making some observations on the company's financial performance for the year ended 30 June, 2022. We believe that the result was strong and it exceeded our expectations despite challenging hydro conditions in the Waiau catchment, particularly, which is Te Anau and Manapōuri earlier this year.
The board declared a final ordinary dividend of NZD 0.1155 this year, which is up 3% on the previous year. That means the total ordinary dividends for the year declared were NZD 0.174 per share, again, up 3% on the previous year. We've kept the dividend reinvestment plan in place, and it remains available for those shareholders wishing to participate in that. Last week, we published our September monthly operating report. The first quarter of this financial year has seen higher generation and sales volumes than the same quarter last year. With high winter rainfall, storage in the Waitaki catchment was nearly 200% of average at the end of last month.
As shareholders will be aware, nevertheless, our results are totally influenced by variable weather conditions, and we have a long way to go until the end of the financial year. It's too hard to predict how the rest of the year is going to pan out. Although the many changes ahead of us can seem daunting, New Zealand is well-positioned, in fact, uniquely in global terms, with a well-established renewable energy base. The opportunity to accelerate our progress is in sight. We're up for the challenge, and it's actually a very exciting time for the sector. Our response to decarbonization must be nuanced, sensitive, intelligent, and bold. The needs and priorities of communities, customers, iwi must all be assessed widely, and our actions must work in the best interests of New Zealand and indeed the rest of the globe.
Before we move on, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, our shareholders. Your board certainly appreciates your continued support. I'll now ask our Chief Executive, Neal Barclay, to address the meeting.
Kia ora, Mark. Ko Neal Barclay tōku ingoa. I'd like to start by introducing you to the Meridian executive team, most of whom are here today. Mark's already introduced Jason Woolley, who's our General Counsel and Company Secretary. We have Mike Roan, CFO, Guy Waipara, General Manager of Development, Chris Ewers, General Manager of Wholesale, Bharat Ratanpal, Chief Information Officer, Lisa Hannifin, Chief Customer Officer, Tania Palmer, General Manager of Generation, and Claire Shaw, General Manager of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability. Lastly, Nic Kennedy, our Chief Executive, Flux Federation, and Jason Stein, our Chief People Officer, are not here today, but would have liked to have been here obviously.
Now, we have a highly experienced and capable, well-established executive team at Meridian, but we're always looking to evolve, and I have made some changes this year that I believe strengthen the team further. Tania Palmer shifted from Chief People Officer to head of our generation team, whose proven sector experience, knowledge of safety systems, and people leadership skills are well suited to leading that part of our business. Meanwhile, we managed to lure Jason Stein, who had been our Chief Executive of our Australian operation, back to this side of the Tasman, and he took over as Chief People Officer from Tania. Jason will continue to focus on enhancing our safe and inclusive culture.
Finally, our long-standing Chief Information Officer, Bharat Ratanpal, has joined the executive team, and he adds invaluable technical skills to how we think about deploying technology to improve our customer propositions, our business performance, as well as protecting our technology systems. It's a sign of the diversity and breadth of skills in the leadership ranks that we've been able to make all of these appointments from within our existing talent pool. Our people, their safety, and their wellbeing will always be front of mind for me. Our reported injury rates are declining. Unfortunately, none of the injuries suffered by people working for us have had lasting impacts on their lives. Our near-miss reporting tells us that our risk exposure is still high. We see this most obviously in relation to the Harapaki construction project. Harapaki is a challenging work site and has experienced difficult construction conditions.
I want to acknowledge the massive safety focus our team has established at that site. I'd also like to call out the work we're doing supporting our people's well-being. We have developed a care team process that wraps support around people in our business who are struggling. Our aim is to ensure that they have the time and support necessary to heal and return to work. Our care team program was recognized at this year's Safeguard Awards as New Zealand's Best Well-Being Initiative. That's something we're very proud of. Our overall level of staff engagement did slip during the year, but we understand where and why this decline occurred, and we're working to address specific staff concerns. Meridian remains in the top 25% of large New Zealand employers from a staff engagement perspective, so that's still pretty positive.
Now, in August, I was pleased to announce another solid financial result for the year ended 30th June, 2022, while EBITDA and underlying net profit after tax of NZD 709 million and NZD 233 million respectively were only marginally ahead of the prior year. We were pleased with the outcome as the operating conditions were reasonably challenging during the year. In particular, we experienced a record-setting drought in the Waiau catchment. That meant that the Manapouri Power Station, the largest power station in New Zealand that typically meets about 12% of New Zealand's electricity needs, was barely idling through the months of March and April. That said, through the course of the whole year, we did achieve good electricity generation numbers, and we continued to grow our retail business, increasing our customer base by more than 18,000 customers on the prior year.
As we've seen in previous years, all droughts eventually end, and we've had plenty of rain in our catchments over the last few months. In fact, the rainfall into our South Island hydro catchments this past winter was 18% higher than any previous winter on record. We are in a strong position with Waitaki storage having peaked at nearly twice its average for this time of year, and that bodes well for the year to 30th June, 2023. As Mark said, still got a long way to go, and the weather is pretty random in this country. The profit on sale of our Australian business is the result of sound deployment of core capabilities developed in New Zealand and a lot of hard work for more than a decade.
I'd especially like to acknowledge the dedicated team of Aussies who work for Meridian Energy Australia and built the business into a very valuable entity. They also did an outstanding job supporting us through the sale process. In many ways, it was quite sad for us to pass that team to the new owners. I know they will continue to do a great job for Shell and ICG and continue to grow a successful renewable-led business in Australia. Importantly, we plan to put the sale proceeds in our balance sheet to productive use and support New Zealand's imperative to achieve zero carbon by 2050. To reinforce Mark's comments, the growth prospects for the electricity sector are huge.
Over the next 30-odd years, the forecast growth and demand for electricity will require a sustained level of new renewable energy build that will outstrip anything New Zealand has managed to achieve at any other point in our country's history. We need to build momentum and capacity in our business that will allow us to take advantage of this growth. As a management team, this is our most significant strategic challenge, and we are serious about ramping up our efforts to achieve seven renewable energy projects within the next 7 years. Now, the good news is, we're getting on with it. During July last year, we commenced construction of the Harapaki Wind Farm in Hawke's Bay. Our project team encountered very challenging, record-setting wet weather conditions during spring and summer. Overall, the project remains on schedule, and that's the most important aspect.
We have experienced, however, some inflationary cost pressures, and we've also had to make some changes to the roading design due to sodden ground conditions. The forecast costs to complete have escalated by about NZD 53 million, which is about 13% of the overall project budget. We're still very confident the project represents a sound investment for Meridian and much-needed renewable energy for New Zealand as it will power the equivalent of around 70,000 Kiwi homes when complete. We'll start producing that power during 2023. Our development team has also been hard at it, building our portfolio of future generation options, and we're increasing our investment support for that team. The Ruakaka Energy Park in Northland will be our next development. We have consent to build a grid-scale battery, and we're presently tendering contracts for that development.
Now, when I say grid scale, think of a battery about the size of four Eden Park rugby fields. It's big, and it will be the first of its kind in this country. We plan to commence the build in 2023 and complete construction during 2024. I'd love it to be sooner as the electricity system has experienced regular peak stress events during winter months. A battery of this size will help alleviate those peak stresses by storing energy during quiet periods of the day and then reinjecting it into the grid over the morning and evening peaks. This battery will enable us to power 60,000 homes for up to 2 hours. As I'm sure you're all aware, international supply chains are stretched, and we have work to do to manage cost escalations and delivery time frames. We will, however, get it done.
I'm sure of that. We've also secured a second battery option site at Bunnythorpe, near Palmerston North. The Ruakaka Energy Park will also include a solar farm development, and the consent application for that is expected to be lodged in early 2023, with construction complete early 2025. The solar farm has an expected total capacity of more than 130 MW. Put that into normal language, that will create enough energy to power around 15,000 homes. We're also preparing to lodge the consent application for the Mount Munro Wind Farm in the Wairarapa early next year, and we expect that project to follow closely on the heels of the Ruakaka developments.
Beyond that, we have a more sizable pipeline of secured options and advanced prospects for multiple solar and wind sites, mostly in the North Island, but we do need more. There's no doubt about that. Alongside these developments, we've been rethinking also how we use the renewable generation assets that we have to best effect. New Zealand currently generates around 80%-85% of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly hydro, supported by coal and gas-fired generation as needed. As those fossil fuel generators are phased out and replaced by wind and solar and geothermal, we'll need to flex our hydro generation capability and storage differently than how we have in the past offset the intermittency inherent in wind and solar generation.
It's a new way of using our resources that require us to think long and hard about the way we manage our existing hydro lakes and the timing of our maintenance schedules. Flexible demand will also become a valuable as a means of managing renewable intermittency. It's a key part of the value proposition of the large-scale green hydrogen production facility in Southland that Meridian and Contact have been progressing. Producing hydrogen from electrolysis is inherently flexible. If the hydrogen producer can reduce production at times when the electricity system is stressed, for example, when there's a seasonal drought and hydro fuel availability is limited, the electricity it would have consumed can effectively be reallocated to other energy consumers. We believe this creates a win-win scenario. The hydrogen producer benefits by being recompensed well for foregone production.
Other electricity consumers benefit from more reliable, cost-effective supply, and the environment benefits as there is less need to produce carbon emissions from coal or gas. This type of demand response is part of a wider discussion on how new and potentially existing industry can align their energy requirements with the nation's needs. If we can make such flexibility commercially viable, that will deliver a cost-efficient solution to help offset the wind and solar intermittency in the electricity system. Overall, the Southern Green Hydrogen project is full steam ahead. We're working with two shortlisted parties, Fortescue Future Industries and Woodside, two large Australian organizations.
We expect to choose one and agree terms for the development stage of the project by the end of the year, and reach a final investment decision in 2024, with plant commissioning probably around the 2027 timeframe. Now, green hydrogen is of tomorrow's technology. Global growth projections are mind-blowing. New Zealand's domestic projections for hydrogen demand are likely to exceed the capacity of Southern Green Hydrogen by a few times. We see the project as creating a foundation toward energy independence for our country as we wean ourselves off fossil fuels. New Zealand's transition to a more renewable system may not be entirely smooth, and the wholesale price for our electricity is likely to be quite volatile at times as the demand and supply balance evolves.
We've seen that in the last few years, where the price for wholesale electricity has ramped up significantly from the long run average. Our view is, as new renewable infrastructure gets built over the long run, we can expect prices to reduce. That's probably cold comfort for large industrial customers as the near-term challenge of wholesale conditions tend to feed through to their pricing quite quickly. Importantly, electricity prices for residential and small- and medium-sized business customers continue to trend below the rate of inflation. In real terms, they've been declining now for more than a decade. All of the evidence tells us strong competition is working for customers in the New Zealand electricity market. The performance of our retail business suggests that we thrive in that competitive environment.
Our dual brand retail growth strategy has been hugely successful, and over the last 5 years, the Meridian and Powershop brands combined have grown sales volumes by 56%. As I mentioned earlier, we kept that momentum up this last year, adding more than 18,000 new customer accounts. Our retail growth has all come from hard-won market share gains, and having the best customer retention rates in the industry has helped deliver that outcome. There is no shortage of competition. We're driven to continue to innovate and to lead. We believe there is massive scope to add value to customers and the system as a whole by providing innovative technology solutions beyond traditional electricity retailing. Accordingly, the next evolution of our customer strategy is based around providing energy solutions that support customers to reduce their total energy bill whilst also reducing their emissions.
Our Process Heat Electrification program has earmarked up to 600 GWh per annum to support customers to switch from coal or gas to electricity. In doing so, we will help those customers avoid pumping around 300,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, which is the equivalent of removing around 150,000 cars off our roads. In talking about cars, we're making good progress deploying our public charging network. We currently have 73 charging stations in 34 locations, making us the second-largest provider of public charging in New Zealand. We have a further 119 charging stations committed and awaiting construction. We're also establishing EV charging products for business and residential customers to make it as simple as possible for Kiwis to drive away from fossil fuels.
In doing so, they will save big time as the cost of fueling the average electric car is the equivalent of around NZD 0.30 per L. A certified renewable energy product has also enabled around 100 large business customers to purchase more than 660 GWh of Renewable Energy Certificates this year. This enables those customers to legitimately reduce their Scope two emissions and improve the sustainability and marketing of their products. Renewable Energy Certificates are of particular value to customers who are engaged in the export markets, as they reflect New Zealand's competitive advantage inherent in our highly renewable electricity system. Further, we've made a commitment to reinvest all of the proceeds from our Renewable Energy Certificates sales into decarbonization projects. Half of that will go to business customers, and half will go to community groups.
An early example is our support for KidsCan, who will replace some of their petrol-powered vehicles with EVs. In summary, by focusing our efforts in providing innovative energy solutions that support our customers to decarbonize their homes and businesses, we can also save them money and grow the value of our own business. We think that's a real win-win scenario. To finish up, I'd like to thank you all, our shareholders, for continuing to support Meridian. I'd like to thank our board for their support, challenge, and clear focus on creating long-term value. I'd like to thank my management team. The broader Meridian whānau who are unwavering in their efforts to deliver on our company's purpose of clean energy for a fairer, healthier world.
We're looking forward to embracing the challenges ahead to continue to grow our business in a way that supports our country's net zero emissions goals. Thank you.
Thank you, Neal. We've come to question time, and I'm just gonna address the online questions that we've received first, and then I'll invite shareholders from the floor to ask questions. So if you just bear with me for a second. One of the questions we've received is from shareholder Bruce Malpas, and he asks, "Where has all the money gone from the sale of our Australian hydro stations, wind farms and Powershop?" In other words, our Australian business. As I detailed in the presentation, Bruce, the proceeds have been retained as cash and applied to the repayment of short-term debt, in order to strengthen our balance sheet and provide us future capacity to invest in the development program that we've talked about this morning. I've also received two questions from Dave Loveridge.
He asks, firstly, "Why do some directors hold more than five directorships, as it must be impossible to do justice to each directorship if you hold more than five?" Well, Dave, I'm absolutely satisfied that each director has the capacity to fully perform their obligations as a director of Meridian. You've got to bear in mind that a lot of the directorships listed are not necessarily listed company directorships, and so the work obligations on those companies can be quite a bit lower than for a listed company. The other thing that's worth bearing in mind is that most, if not all, of our directors actually work full-time, but yet the work that's required for the Meridian board itself is not.
I should note also that, proxy advisors, these are companies that advise institutional shareholders how they should exercise their votes, for example, at our meeting today. They've looked at our director workloads and are satisfied that they fit within their guidelines. Mr. Loveridge's second question is on shareholder, director, and senior management alignment. He makes the point that he would like to see, directors and senior management being required to purchase shares within a short time of their appointment. Well, the board certainly encourages, directors to hold shares in Meridian. It's not a strict requirement. We don't consider, and we note that the New Zealand Shareholders' Association has the same view.
We don't want to put a hard and fast requirement in place, particularly, when we're trying to encourage younger directors with particular skill sets to join our board. Everyone's financial situation is different, and that should be borne in mind, and we certainly don't want to shut ourselves out from certain capabilities by having a strict requirement. That said, I think it's true to say that today, every director holds at least some shares, and I know that some of our younger directors are building their own portfolio. In the case of management, they, of course, hold an equity interest in Meridian, and it is significant, particularly the senior executive team, and the next layer down.
A portion of their salary is, in fact, made up of what we call long-term incentive, which is actually equity in the company. They are very much aligned already, I would say. I've got another one sitting here on the screen. Could you please briefly describe the progress in relation to our Ruakaka Energy Park project, which is our battery storage and solar generation project up in Northland? Well, the plan is to have that build commence in 2023 and complete construction, I think, in 2024. Yes, I think so. That's basically where we are on that, but I can tell you it's definitely full steam ahead.
The key is before winter 2024. I think the objective there is to have the battery available before winter 2024, because as I say, it's an important mechanism to help us get through these winters where you have very peaky loads, particularly in the early evenings. We think the battery will be critical to the system and so that's our, you know, the timing that we're really working hard to achieve. Over to you.
A question here from Mr. Gouldstuck. Many of, I assume that's retail energy providers, provide an hour of free electricity at night. Why does Meridian not do this to remain competitive? Well, the answer is, I think you've picked out one particular aspect of an offer that is made by other providers. The important thing is that you've actually got to look across the whole offer and all aspects of an offer to customers. Certainly, my understanding, it should be clear to shareholders, we've been winning retail shares. I would say that our retail offers are pretty competitive. A question from Gillian King. I bought Meridian shares because of its 100% renewable energy playing an important part in stopping damage to the climate.
This year's investor letter and website proclaims Meridian as having a 100% renewable strategy. I was sad and angry when Meridian bought a gas plant in Australia, so I was pleased when it was sold as part of the sale of the Australian business. Well, actually, the fact of the matter is, we've never owned any gas plants. We never had any in Australia either. I think.
No, no, the Australian business was fully renewable. There was no gas assets involved in it. I'm afraid, Gillian, that's.
That's not quite correct.
Yeah, that's not quite correct.
Yeah. Question from Mr. Diver. Is Meridian going to keep the principle of a low-user tariff, i.e., a low daily rate and a higher rate on power usage charges? Well, as I understand it, Neal would know more. The low-user tariff regulations are currently being phased out by the government. I think it's a 5-year period.
Yeah, it's over 5 years, and we're phasing out in line with that. We will not retain the low-user tariff. I mean, it created all sorts of distortions and actually created an unfair outcome for many, you know, poorer households. When you get under the covers and understand what was really happening there, it wasn't a very good regulatory intervention that needed to be phased out, and we're getting in behind that.
Right. Gillian King again. I'm pleased to see Meridian using the Global Reporting Initiative standards in this year's annual report. Page 37 of the annual report mentions fugitive greenhouse gas emissions are small, yet they are there. What are the sources of our fugitive emissions? Well, these are things like emissions from transformers at power stations, air conditioning systems and the like. That would make the bulk of it, wouldn't it?
Yeah, yeah. Some of the transformers, some of the switchgear. We're actually got a program to phase all of that equipment out over time too, to reduce those fugitive emissions to as close to zero as we possibly can. That's part of our half by 2030 initiative. Certainly for those types of emissions, we'd expect them to be very close to zero by 2030.
This is again a question from Mr. Diver. Should the tariff charge to the aluminum smelter or any other business of this size be the basis for the competitive wholesale rate of power? Well, the way the wholesale market is really structured is that the future wholesale price of electricity is actually driven by the cost of building future generation. We've certainly been clear with the smelter owners that any extension of its presence in New Zealand will require a better contract price than the current exit price that they have been paying just in this last period. I think that's probably a complete answer to that.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah. Is that it, Owen? Yep. Thank you.
Any questions from the floor, mate?
Yeah, I'm coming to that. Are there any shareholders present at the meeting today that might have a question for us? Yes, sir. If you could perhaps come to the microphone in the center, please. If you could state your name, please.
Michael Bowden, Shareholder. I'm just wondering who you anticipate will be your major customers for hydrogen.
In the early stages, we expect a lot of the product to be exported, probably up into Asia. We're likely to export product up to Japan that could be burned in coal-fired plant and therefore reduce their emissions. That'll be the first in potential customer opportunity. Although we've still got to, you know, we're still exploring all sales avenues globally, really. Ultimately, though, we think with New Zealand's likely demand for hydrogen-based products into the future, that a good portion of the production will go into the domestic economy. It'll probably be over the, you know, the 2030, 2040 timeframe.
I have heard that, I think it's MOVe Logistics trucking company. They're investing in hydrogen-powered trucks. I guess that'll be one customer.
Yeah. There will be various heavy transport providers that, in fact, I know of another one that are looking at that at the moment, and it's all at the investigatory stage at the moment. Thank you. Any other questions?
This lady over here.
Sorry. Can you see? Yes, please come to the microphone.
Yeah. My name is Hayley Ching. I'm shareholder. I wish that you can tell me how much to build a charging station please. Charging station.
An EV charging station, do you mean?
Electric charging station.
Right.
How much does it cost?
A public charging station? Yeah.
I mean the battery recharging.
Yep. Yep.
The electric battery recharging station we just saw on the screen.
Yep. Sure. I will hand that question to our Chief Customer Officer who's sitting here, who's probably knows intimately.
They're actually all different, because it depends on the connections to the network. It could range from anywhere from say NZD 15,000-NZD 20,000 to NZD 30,000-NZD 40,000 . It just depends.
That's not expensive.
Yes.
Oh, oh.
Right up to a very, very expensive one, which is highway charging, which is a different. It depends on the size and where they are.
Oh. Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah. Just recently, I have read an article. Yes. About the solar power over a big truck. Yeah. What should I say? Is it a good trend as well?
I think.
Besides using hydrogen. Is it more competitive when compared with hydrogen by using a solar panel above the truck? Yeah. This is just a very recent announcement in the newspaper.
Yeah. Look, I think all of these technology advances are positive and we don't know which is gonna be the most economic, you know, globally yet, whether it be hydrogen, particularly for heavy transport, as you're referring to, solar or battery-based solutions. I think ultimately though, in New Zealand, we're well positioned to take advantage whatever successful technology comes about because the electricity that would create both, you know, the energy put into a battery system or hydrogen will come from renewable sources. We've got a unique advantage from that perspective. You know, any sort of solar rooftop in terms of businesses, customers, vehicles, it all goes into the mix to actually decarbonize our economy. It's ultimately a good thing in my view.
I wouldn't say which way or what'll be the most successful technology solution at this moment in time. Still got to discover that.
I suggest that I have to do a little bit research so that we can go ahead of time. That is always good if we invest ahead of time. That I like to do. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other questions? Yes, sir.
My name is Don Benham, a shareholder. Coming back to the aluminum smelter. When they exit, there'll be a lot of power in Manapouri. Okay, from Manapouri. Although Transpower is building transmission line, but I don't think the line will be big enough to handle the capacity of Manapouri. What are you doing with the extra power, you know, generated from Manapouri?
Well, firstly, just to correct you, the reason Transpower has enhanced the transmission system down south. In fact, if the smelter wasn't there, that power could be transported north. That said, the Southern Green Hydrogen project, which is the initiative that Neal has talked about this morning, that would be based in Southland if that goes ahead. A large chunk of what the smelter currently takes could very easily be accommodated down there, and it wouldn't need to be transported north.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. Any final questions? Not seeing any. Okay. Thank you. We'll now move on to the formal resolutions outlined in the notice of meeting. Before we do that, I will briefly talk about the voting procedures. Having opened the voting earlier, for those of you online, you will see a new icon should have appeared on your screen. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with the voting options. To cast your vote, you simply select one of the options. There is no need to hit a submit or enter button as the vote's automatically recorded. For those of you in the room, please cast your vote and place the voting form in the boxes located at the back of the room.
I'll just reiterate that persons attending the meeting who are not shareholders, proxy holders or corporate representatives of shareholders may not vote, and that includes bondholders. Many of the shareholders who are registered on the Meridian Share Register who are not attending today have actually already voted. At the request of the New Zealand Shareholders' Association, we will defer the announcement of the proxy count outcome until after the formal resolutions have been considered by the meeting. It is my pleasure to introduce and move the resolution to re-elect Michelle Henderson as a director of the company. Michelle was appointed to the board in 2019 and she currently serves on the Safety and Sustainability Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee, as well as the board.
The board considers Michelle to be an Independent Director and unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the meeting. Michelle, I'll invite you up to come and speak to your reappointment.
Thank you. Thanks, Mark. Kia ora koutou. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak today. Having joined the board three years ago, I have completed one term. The purpose of Meridian Energy, of clean energy for a fairer and healthier world, is something I remain committed to. It's been a real privilege to work alongside my fellow directors and our wonderful management team. Decarbonization is front of mind for the team here, and I'm excited to play a part in this important work for New Zealand. My engineering background has been incredibly useful in this role. I may remain passionate about the energy sector that is both challenging and rewarding. I reside in Invercargill and bring a regional perspective to the board. Southland is home to some of our iconic assets and also the region where we have big plans for growth.
I'm particularly excited about hydrogen options and understand, though, there's certainly some complexity ahead of us. Over the last 3 years, I've been appointed to other governance roles. The two of most relevance are South Port, located in Bluff, and the Fulton Hogan companies. I'm a chartered member of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand and a recent graduate through the Harvard Business School. I remain committed to driving my own personal and professional development to ensure that I can contribute to my very best. I would consider it a tremendous privilege to serve you and all other stakeholders of Meridian Energy as a director. I seek your support to re-elect me today. Thank you.
Thanks, Michelle. I now move that Michelle Henderson, who retires by rotation and is eligible for re-election, be re-elected as a director. Is there any discussion on the resolution? No? Thank you. I have moved the resolution. I will therefore now put the resolution. Shareholders should complete their voting for the resolution. I will now pause to allow you to finalize your vote, and I'll just pause for about a minute, also to allow online shareholders to do the same. Right. I think that's probably sufficient. Allowed sufficient time. It is now my pleasure to introduce and move the resolution to re-elect Julia Hoare as a director of the company. Julia was appointed to the board in 2019, and she is currently chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.
The board considers Julia to be an Independent Director and unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of her re-election. Julia, I now invite you to speak.
Tēnā koutou katoa. Thanks, Mark, and hello to all of you, both here in the room and also online today. I'm really delighted to be here, and I'd like to say a few words in support of my re-election as a director of your and my company. First, a little background about myself. I started my governance career around about 10 years ago. Before that, I was a PwC partner for 20 years, and through that early stage of my career, I obviously gained really deep commercial and financial skills. I also led PwC's sustainability and climate change initiatives as well. I currently serve on three other boards. I chair Port of Tauranga, and I'm on the Auckland Airport board and the a2 Milk Company board. I'm a really strong proponent of good governance, and I also feel very strongly in life that it's important to give back.
Because of that, I currently am both the president and the inaugural chair of the Institute of Directors in New Zealand. Both roles I will step down from during 2023 when my terms are complete. I'm also on the Chapter Zero New Zealand Steering Committee, which is a global initiative which is really designed to help board members become ready to be able to have those really important conversations around climate change around the board table. From a style perspective, I think I'm very thorough in what I do. I'm respectful, I'm thoughtful, and I think I'm a constructive contributor. I've got a very strong social compass which underpins everything that I sort of act and say and do.
I'm incredibly proud to be associated with Meridian, and I'm really feel very privileged to have served you as shareholders in this great company over the last 3 years. As Mark said, I chair the Audit Risk Committee, which I've done so since I joined the board. As you'll appreciate, Meridian is a large and complex business. It's got some fantastic opportunities ahead and challenges, and I think that my deep financial and commercial skills can add some value as we have these really important discussions around the board table.
I also believe that I can make a strong contribution to our company's governance and long-term success by also drawing on my deep sustainability experience and my understanding of what it means to operate in a world where we really need to have a social license to participate, and also my own emphasis on being purpose-driven. Last but not least, Michelle made this comment and the comment came through earlier in the speeches too. I truly believe in the critical importance of Meridian's purpose, being clean energy for a fairer and healthier world. I'd really like to continue to contribute to Meridian and Meridian's journey and provide my governance support and ensure positive outcomes for the company. I hope I have your support to be able to continue to serve this absolutely fabulous company and all of its stakeholders.
Thank you very much for your time today.
Thank you, Julia. I now move that Julia Hoare, who retires by rotation and is eligible for re-election, be reappointed as a director of the company. Is there any discussion? I have moved the resolution. I now put the resolution. Shareholders should complete their voting for the resolution, and I will pause in order to give you time to finalize your vote. That should have given shareholders sufficient time. I will now move on to the third resolution, which is related to the reappointment of Nagaja Sanatkumar. It is my pleasure to introduce her to you and ask that she speak. She was appointed to the board at the beginning of 2020, and she currently also sits on the People and Remuneration and the Safety and Sustainability Committees of the board.
We certainly consider her to be an independent director, and we unanimously recommend that you vote in favor of her re-election. Nagaja.
Thank you, Mark. Good morning, everyone. My name is Nagaja Sanatkumar, and I'm standing for re-election onto the board of directors. Thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly and seek your support to continue as a director on your company. I transitioned from an executive career in retail technology and general business management into a full-time career in governance as a non-executive independent director in 2019. I have been serving on the board of Meridian since January 2020, in addition to governance roles at New Zealand Post, Foodstuffs North Island, Tuatahi First Fibre and MediaWorks. My governance roles span purpose-led infrastructure and retail organizations. My international leadership experience in consumer-driven businesses and digital innovation and subsequent non-executive director appointments complement my education in engineering, business administration, and most recently, sustainable development.
These allow me to contribute skills and knowledge in commercial acumen, people leadership, digital technology, consumer retail, sustainable design, and strategic thinking. I bring a globally informed, diverse perspective to Meridian's governance and business challenges, its future strategy and opportunities, and its critical role in aiding New Zealand's decarbonization transition to a net zero economy over the coming decades. I serve on the People and Remuneration Committee as a member, and more recently, also as a member on the Safety and Sustainability Committee. Both these sub-committees align with my skills and values to continuously develop our talent, our systems and processes, and our sustainability leadership. I am deeply passionate about environmental, social, and economic sustainability, continuously seeking to learn and contribute to finding innovative solutions in a rapidly changing world. Holding myself accountable to the highest standards of responsibility in serving the shareholders and our wider community.
I humbly ask for your support to continue serving you as a director at what I believe is one of New Zealand's best organizations. "Ngā mihi nui." Thank you. I'll pass back to Mark.
Thank you, Nagaja Sanatkumar. I move that Nagaja Sanatkumar, who retires by rotation and is eligible for re-election, be re-elected as a director of the company. Is there any discussion? Okay, I have moved the resolution. I therefore now put the resolution. You should now complete your voting for the resolution. I will pause to allow time to complete your vote. Okay, I think that's probably enough of a pause. We come to the final resolution of the day. It is my pleasure to introduce and move the resolution to elect Graham Cockroft as a director of the company. Graham joined us on the board in July of this year. He has over 30 years experience in international energy with executive roles in the U.K., South America, New Zealand, and Asia.
His experience has been across the energy chain and under different political, economic, and regulatory regimes. He has a strong financial background and extensive experience in strategy, business development, and operations. The board considers Graham to be an independent director and unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of his election. Graham, you now have the floor to address the meeting.
Thank you, Mark. Kia ora koutou. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and fellow shareholders. Thank you very much for joining us today, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to present some relevant details of my background and career. I started my journey in the energy industry over 30 years ago when I joined a company called British Gas in London. I'd grown up in Dunedin, studied economics and marketing at University of Otago before heading to the U.K. There, I completed a master's in finance at the London Business School. I've since spent most of my working life in the energy industry in a variety of roles and countries, most recently as group chief financial officer for a company called Sembcorp Industries, listed in Singapore. Prior to that, I served as chief operating officer and then chief financial officer at Contact Energy here in New Zealand.
I joined Contact after nearly 20 years with British Gas in the U.K. and South America. During this time, I've gained a lot of leadership experience in strategy, business development, acquisitions and divestments, large capital projects, safety, and stakeholder management. I believe these experiences have given me the ability to see business and the energy industry from many different angles, which I believe will help us address the challenges we face today. This is my first year as an independent non-executive director, but I was involved in board and governance throughout the 20 years of my executive career. This year, I was also appointed as an independent director to the board of AGL Energy, an energy company listed in Australia.
The challenges faced in Australia are very different to those here in New Zealand, but there are many things that we can learn from each other that will ultimately help both countries progress. I'm sure you've all heard about the energy transition today and the need to de-decarbonize our economy to reduce our impact on the environment. There are many opportunities for our company in this transition, and your board and the management team are pursuing these so that you, shareholders, will benefit from this future. We need to do this in a well-considered and balanced way so that we, as New Zealanders, also have reliable and affordable energy, and that all of our communities benefit. I believe my international experience and perspectives can help us navigate this transition.
Ladies and gentlemen, should you endorse me today, I would be honored to continue to participate in this board and company and accordingly offer myself for election. Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you, Graham Cockroft. I now move that Graham Cockroft be elected as a director of the company. Is there any discussion? No. Okay, I have moved the resolution. I therefore now put the resolution. Shareholders should complete their voting for the resolution. Again, one final time, I will pause to allow you time to finalize your vote. Okay. Thank you for your attendance to the resolutions and the meeting. As advised to the meeting earlier, many shareholders have voted by proxy before the meeting and at the request of the New Zealand Shareholders' Association, we've delayed the announcement of the results until after the consideration of the resolutions. As I can now show you on the screen, I can advise that we received approximately 1.9 billion votes, representing 75% of the shares on issue.
They were lodged with our share registrar, Computershare, 48 hours prior to the commencement of the meeting, as is required. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the discussion on the items of business. In a minute, I will close the voting system. Please, now, this is your one final chance to ensure you've cast your vote on all resolutions. I'll now pause just for that last final time. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I now declare that voting is closed. Thank you for your attendance at the meeting today. As advised earlier, many shareholders voted before the meeting, and we did delay the outcome of the vote until afterwards. There will also be an announcement of the final vote count to the stock exchange after the conclusion of the meeting.
That is also after they've been scrutinized by our auditors and Computershare. As the policy of the board is to rotate the annual shareholder meeting around the main centers of Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland, I'd just like to say that our current intent for next year is to hold next year's meeting in Christchurch. Thank you again for attending the meeting. I now declare the meeting closed. Thank you very much.