Electricity Authority Seeking Ideas On Giving ‘Power Back To The People'
It is likely that communities and individuals will increasingly embrace the concept of energy independence, with decentralised systems empowering them to take control of their energy production and consumption, says Electricity Authority Chair Anna …
Imagine a future where your EV – literally a battery on wheels – stores the energy captured from your rooftop solar panels ensuring big savings on monthly bills and enabling you to sell surplus energy to the grid during periods of high demand. Or, where communities, iwi, and hapū, can generate their own renewable energy, sharing set-up costs, savings and other benefits, increasing community resilience and supporting those in their community experiencing energy hardship.
Thanks to distributed energy resources like solar panels, smart digital technologies and reducing costs of the technologies involved these opportunities are much closer than we think. Empowering and enabling consumers and communities to fully participate in and benefit from a more decentralised electricity system is the focus of a green paper released by the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (Authority) today.
The paper, 'Working together to ensure our electricity system meets the future needs of all New Zealanders' aims to secure industry, iwi and hapū, community and stakeholder input into what a decentralised electricity system could look like, and the pathways to achieving it over the coming years.
Electricity Authority Chair Anna Kominik says decentralisation is literally giving power back to the people.
'In the electricity sector, decentralisation provides an option to shift from large scale electricity generation at a small number of sites across the country, to smaller scale renewables and other energy resources located closer to consumer demand. This can support greater resilience, sustainability, security and lower power costs. At a local level it improves energy independence and opportunities for economic development,' she says.
But decentralisation also presents challenges. These include integrating systems, funding and finance barriers, ensuring equitable access to benefits, and creating appropriate governance structures and regulation.
Kominik acknowledges there's a wide range of views on these issues: 'The Electricity Authority is looking to the future of how consumers access electricity and how the system needs to change to enable this. The Authority will be engaging with industry, iwi, communities and consumers in the coming months to help shape the future regulatory framework that ensures consumers have access to affordable electricity that meets their needs.
Views on decentralization will also contribute to a suite of other changes the Authority has underway for consumers. Some of these include proposed changes to see Kiwis fairly paid for the solar power they export to the grid, in particular into congested parts of the network.
The Authority's data shows that to the end of March 2025, there were 74,757 connections with solar installed, 68,292 of which are residential connections. New residential solar connections have been steadily increasing month-on-month and are up more than 18% over the last year. Those connections currently contribute over 336 megawatts of energy, but Kominik says there's lots of room for continued growth.
And at a community level there are also valuable case study projects helping to inform the Authority's thinking on a decentralised system.
– With its exposure to extreme weather events a remote community at Castle Hill in the Southern Alps is looking to build resilience through a decentralised energy system which will power their community hall, and the local freshwater and wastewater systems in the event of civil defense emergencies.
– The community of Tākaka is working together to install solar panels and a 2kW battery allowing power sharing between homes behind a single meter. The first phase proof of concept initiative is highlighting some of the early barriers, and opportunities to scale up.
– A similar scheme is being trialed in Franklin which aims to cover 80-90% of annual energy bills for three family services organisations participating in the pilot.
Kominik says it is likely that communities and individuals will increasingly embrace the concept of energy independence, with decentralised systems empowering them to take control of their energy production and consumption.
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