Govt keen on making EV chargers smart
Most EVs are charged at home on a simple 3 pin plug into the wall. But that limits line companies' control over energy draw, as they do with hot water to manage load on the network, and means households can't charge their cars when power is cheapest. MBIE is consulting on the proposed changes.
Kathryn speaks with Drive Electric chair Kirsten Corson and Moonis Vegdani chief network and digital officer for Counties Power the lines company for South Auckland.
Electric car charging.
Photo:
123rf
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

RNZ News
20 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Kiwis worth more than $1 million thanks to investment platforms
Thousands of New Zealanders now have accounts on investment platforms like Sharesies worth more than $1 million. People have told RNZ the growth has been noticeable in recent years. Money correspondent Susan Edmunds spoke to Lisa Owen. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.

RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Sarjeant Gallery final cost $79.4m – ratepayers pick up a third of the bill
The final accounts are in for the redevelopment of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. Photo: Supplied / Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery / Andy Spain photography Whanganui ratepayers will foot $26 million of the $79m bill to redevelop Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. The project's final cost includes an overspend of $19.67m. A final report by project director Gaye Batty was delivered to Whanganui District Council's operations and performance committee on Thursday. The mammoth project was to restore, upgrade and earthquake strengthen the 106-year-old gallery and construct a modern extension, Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa. In 2015, the council committed $5m to the redevelopment through its long-term plan and guaranteed the project in 2017 to secure central government funding. The final cost to the council will be $26.08m, including the initial $5m commitment. Mayor Andrew Tripe said a ratepayer contribution of a third of the cost was an extraordinary outcome, with two-thirds met by fundraising. "There aren't many civic projects that get that level of investment from external sources." Batty said the initial project budget in 2019/2020 was $55.06m including a $5.15m contingency. Since that time the project had overcome a range of challenges and incurred significant delays because of unavoidable factors, most due to the complexity of the upgrading and seismic strengthening of the original Sarjeant Gallery building. The work was extended by 21 months. "In line with other major projects that have had to manage the combined impact of Covid-19 on programme, staff availability, material and labour cost escalations and disruptions in the supply chain, the project has significantly exceeded the original project budget," Batty said. Kapa haka at the opening of the gallery in November 2024. Photo: Supplied / Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery Following the settlement of the main contractor's final account in July, the forecast total project cost to November 2025 was $79.4m - an overspend of $19.67m. Two-thirds of increased costs related to the existing building, ground conditions, the impact of Covid-19 and design variations including for mechanical design changes. The balance of cost was from consent processing delays, external works and the eastern driveway, archaeology and contract works insurance. Tripe said the project would not have progressed from its inception nearly 30 years ago without the efforts of the Sarjeant Gallery Trust and the funds raised by donations and grants provided by successive governments. "Despite Covid lockdowns, inflation and construction delays, we now have an award-winning cultural facility that's already generating value for our community and local economy and will do so for a hundred years and more," Tripe said. The gallery opened in November 2024 and has been recognised internationally. National Geographic recently named it among the world's top 10 cultural hotspots to visit in 2025. Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford told the council's operations and performance committee that the gallery was exceeding all expectations. A recent survey showed nearly 60 percent of visitors were from outside the district, and most stayed for over three nights, helping deliver an estimated $17.6m in economic impact annually. Last week the visitor count hit 100,000. Visitor survey results recorded 96 percent satisfaction and revenue from the gallery's café, retail shop and venue hire had already exceeded $700,000, helping offset ongoing operational costs. Langford said the five-year redevelopment was one of the most complex and rewarding projects the council had undertaken. "We were restoring and strengthening a fragile heritage building on a sandhill, during a global pandemic. "Despite these challenges, the project was completed to a high standard and with full transparency about cost and timeline impacts." He said employing local contractors injected an estimated $20.7m into the Whanganui economy and the construction period overall generated an estimated $49-55m in wider economic impacts. - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Air NZ's CEO appointment stirs racist backlash
Nikhil Ravishankar Photo: Supplied / Air NZ The appointment of Nikhil Ravishankar as Air New Zealand's incoming chief executive caused a stir Thursday after major news outlets were forced to disable comments on their social media platforms due to receiving a barrage of racist remarks. Ravishankar, chief digital officer of Air New Zealand, was tapped to lead the national carrier - one of the country's most respected corporate brands - after Greg Foran steps down in October. However, the appointment of the Indian-origin insider to the airline's top job attracted a torrent of abuse online, with many zeroing in on Ravishankar's ethnicity. The abuse forced the country's leading media organisations to restrict or disable the ability to comment on the social media posts announcing the news. New Zealand Herald disabled comments on the Facebook post announcing the appointment "due to racist comments". "We appreciate the high level of interest in this story but cannot safely moderate it at this time," the news outlet said in a post in the comment thread. A spokesperson at New Zealand Herald later pointed RNZ towards the company's policy on social media comments. "We want to foster a safe online community by reducing instances of hate, racism, abuse and misinformation," the media organisation's policy said. "We welcome your feedback on articles but there has to be some parameters, and these are explained in our community house rules," it said. "These clearly explain that we will not publish comments that are insulting, inflammatory or derogatory or those that spread misinformation or include personal attacks," it said. "We cannot tolerate hate. We cannot tolerate abuse towards individuals in our stories or other commenters." Radio New Zealand was forced to disable comments on the social media post on Ravishankar's appointment. "Under RNZ's comments policy, we will proactively disable comments on posts which may attract abusive or harmful comments or when resources are required elsewhere," a spokesperson for RNZ said. "In this instance, the comments were disabled after our monitoring found racist comments," the spokesperson said. "We want people to feel safe and respected on our community forums and will continue to proactively disable comments where necessary. We will not tolerate harmful communications." TVNZ's 1News digital service took similar action in terms of restricting comments on the post. "We received a large number of comments on this post," a spokesperson for 1News said. "The vast majority were appropriate, however some were not," the spokesperson said. "With our news team diverted to cover the tsunami event yesterday afternoon and evening we opted to turn comments off given sufficient monitoring wasn't possible." Ravishankar holds bachelor's degrees in science and commerce from the University of Auckland after attending Mount Albert Grammar School in the country's largest city. He sits on the board of New Zealand Asian Leaders and is an advisory committee member of The Auckland Blues Foundation. Ravishankar has been with Air New Zealand for nearly five years and has been involved in strengthening its technology, loyalty and customer services. Before joining the airline, Ravishankar was chief digital officer at Vector New Zealand, leading the company's digital and information technology function and its transformation programme from 2017. He was previously managing director at Accenture in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, and held technology strategy and transformation leadership roles at Spark New Zealand. Ravishankar highlighted the deep legacy of the company he would soon lead in his first public comments after his appointment was announced. "This airline is an institution with a deep legacy but also a fantastic future," Ravishankar said. "It's a privilege to step into the CEO role and take on that responsibility for our people, our customers and our country. "At the end of the day, we are a people business - purposeful, ambitious and deeply rooted in Aotearoa New Zealand, and I'm excited to help shape what this next stage of Air New Zealand looks like." RNZ has approached Air NZ for comment. Latest Census data in 2023 showed that the Indian population had leapfrogged the Chinese community to become the third-largest ethnic group in New Zealand. A total of 292,092 people in the country identified as a member of the Indian community in the 2023 Census, an increase of 22 percent since 2018. The New Zealand European ethnic group remained the largest, with a population of 3,099,858, followed by Māori with 887,493. Auckland's Indian population grew by 13 percent between 2018 and 2023, rising from 154,824 in 2018 to 175,794 five years later.