The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
Welcome to the first instalment of our weekly trip down Electric Avenue, where the Rewiring Aotearoa team shares the good, the bad and the ugly (but mostly the good) from the world of electrification.
We're seeing some glimmers of innovation in the electricity sector at the moment and a recent standout was the country’s first second-life battery system. It repurposed 18 old Nissan Leaf batteries that were destined for landfill and turned them into vehicle chargers. They can charge up with electricity during times of lower demand and then slow charge EVs. As Elton John so wisely sang, it’s the circle of life and it moves within Mercer! Tip of the hat to Counties Energy and EECA for pushing ideas like this. It shows the transition to electricity is a much better way to use materials than burning expensive single use fossil fuels. As Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey outlined recently, electrification is the efficiency we've always been looking for and fossil fuels are a massive and yet largely invisible form of waste. There is huge potential for re-use and recycling in electrification projects, as seen here, which means we can do more with less.
There are also a few glimmers of innovation from the electricity retailers, which Consumer ranked recently in terms of customer satisfaction (hint: switching energy provider might save you some cash, but switching your energy source will save you more). We’ve seen positive shifts around time-of-use plans and 'free' or cheap use periods, but Octopus Energy has taken it up a notch by offering to pay customers to reduce their usage when electricity supply gets tight. Large users, including Glenbrook Steel Mill and, more recently, Tiwai Aluminium smelter, which signed a 20 year electricity contract with Contact, Meridian and Mercury, are incentivised to reduce use at peak times and ideally reduce the need for fossil fuel generation. So why should individual customers who reduce their usage and together could make a big saving not benefit financially as well? Listen to COO Margaret Cooney explain the thinking on RNZ.
Speaking of Octopus, it’s one of the biggest energy companies in the UK and its platform Kraken is being used to create homes with zero-energy bills. Say what now? Zero energy bills? Get outta town! That might seem impossible but with the right combination of customer generation, battery storage and smart technology, it’s happening right now - and it’s happening without customers having to do anything. Check out this video to see how it works and what the future could look like in New Zealand if we built better, fixed the finance, saw the opportunity to slash emissions and made things a bit fairer for those who contribute to the energy system.
Our friends in Australia are a long way ahead of New Zealand when it comes to rooftop solar adoption, but we’re pretty close when it comes to reaching the ‘electrification tipping point’, where electric appliances and vehicles are cheaper than their fossil fuel equivalents. Our Electric Homes report outlined that and in Australia, the Government has just edged further ahead by issuing an inaugural $7 billion green bond. “Money raised from the green bond will go towards projects like green hydrogen hubs, community batteries and clean transport, as well as programs to conserve biodiversity, among others.” A good example of turning climate change into an economic opportunity, rather than simply seeing it as a cost - and definitely something New Zealand could be looking to emulate.
And to round out the inaugural edition of Electric Avenue, here's a rather unique take on the hot and toxic guests you inadvertently invite into your home if you’re running a gas hob. There’s plenty of evidence about the respiratory impacts of using fossil gas to cook in the home, and plenty of evidence to show the gas industry has used some dirty marketing tricks to keep you hooked up to that dirty fuel. So if you have the choice, induction is a good one.
If you've got some good electrification news that you think deserves some attention in Electric Avenue, send it to hello@rewiring.nz.
In the last Electric Avenue of 2025, we look at the two biggest trends in the world of energy; the Government goes electric for its fancy fleet upgrade; Nick Offerman offers his services to a US campaign extolling the virtues of EVs; Australia shows what's possible in new homes when you add solar, batteries and smart tech; a start-up selling portable solar and battery systems that wants it to be as easy and common as wi-fi; and The Lines Company looks to put some solar on the roof of the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House.
Read moreDownloadWhen it comes to electric farming, "the numbers are becoming undeniable," says Nicholson Poultry's Jeff Collings. With 60kW of solar, a Nissan Leaf as a 'farm quad', electric mowers, an electric ute that can run a water blaster, and even a chicken manure scraper made out of a wrecked Tesla that, as Rewiring's Matt Newman says, looks a bit like something out of Mad Max, "almost everything is electric". There aren't many others in New Zealand who have gone this far down the electric road. And, with his electric Stark Varg, the fastest off-road motorbike in the world, he's obviously having plenty of fun on that road, too.
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Kate Newton reports on the "madness" of thousands of new piped gas connections being installed into houses every year, despite dwindling supplies and higher lifetime costs.
Casey said it was positive that the numbers showed people starting to leave the gas network of their own accord, but not all households were in a position to make that choice.
"If we don't plan for a decommissioning of the gas network, then it's going to be a chaotic transition, where vulnerable New Zealanders really suffer."
As the research of Rewiring and others has shown, gas is expensive, it's getting more expensive, it's terrible for your health when burned inside and there are substitutes available right now that, on average, do the same job for less money over the long run for households, would save the country billions on health costs and lost productivity, and don't pump out unnecessary emissions.
Around 300,000 homes and businesses have connections to the gas network (it’s estimated another 300,000 use more expensive bottled gas, mostly in the South Island). The number of active connections has started to decline recently and the country’s largest gas network, Vector, is forecasting no new residential or commercial connections after 2029.
Upfront capital costs are the main barrier for many homes, which is why we're working hard on a low-interest, long-term loan scheme that can be used to pay for electric upgrades, including hot water heat pumps. This would mean paying for a new thing with a loan would be cheaper than paying to run the old thing.
Read more about the scheme here.
Disconnection costs are also a major barrier. We have seen examples where households permanently disconnecting from the network have been charged between $1,000 and $2,000 to have a meter permanently removed (i.e. digging up the pipes to the road), even though it should only cost customers $200 to have the connection capped at the house.
RNZ even reported a case where a business customer was quoted $7,500 but took the case to Utilities Disputes, where complaints about disconnection costs have been rising.
The Australian Energy Regulator and the state of Victoria have now capped the disconnection fees to a few hundred dollars to stop this kind of behaviour and protect households.