The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
Rewiring Aotearoa's submission highlights that successful digitalisation should allow customers to maximise benefits from their provision of demand flexibility and solar and battery exports, without third parties (aggregators or VPPs) routinely taking a cut of the value. Retail offerings that include time of use prices and fair export tariffs will be key enablers of successful digitalisation of the electricity system. Customers need a fair deal through their electricity prices and export tariffs. This means the customers need to have the option to choose from a range of retail tariffs that include time of use prices, fair export tariffs (that reflect the value in the wholesale market) and symmetrical export tariffs from distributors.
Read moreDownload the document here"We've lost the cops!" In our next instalment of Political Power, we managed to get David Seymour, deputy prime minister and leader of the Act Party, behind the wheel of a Zeekr 7x when he was in Queenstown recently. As is often the case when people take a new EV for a spin, there was much chortling as he gave it heaps up the Remarkables ski field road - and, if we take him at his word, we might even see him give Mike Casey's tractor heaps up Parliament steps in the future.
Read moreDownloadEVs are having a moment right now, so how can we get more people driving electric; Tom Selleck sums up how EV owners are feeling right now and staggering analysis shows the sun's prices have been unaffected by decades of geopolitical conflict; Scion goes solar to get off gas, while dairy farmers and homes go with solar and batteries to keep going; Saul Griffith takes his solar-powered scooter to Canberra and starts a fight with regulators; the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton gets some panels donated and will save $17,000 a year; and killing the Friday vibe with new studies on how fossil fuel companies made massive profits after the last energy crisis in 2022 and carbon emissions making our blood boil - perhaps quite literally.
Read moreDownloadAn electrification advocate says the rising price and falling supply of gas may not be a bad thing in the long-term. PwC research —commissioned by Gas Industry Co— has found New Zealand's gas market will need to shrink sharply as domestic supply declines. It warns this could mean business closures, job losses, and higher energy costs.