News & Updates

Rewiring generally supports the improvements proposed in the Bill, and seek that the scope of these improvements be expanded to include the legislative changes required to enable the Ratepayer Assistance RAS due to the significant infrastructure and cost of living improvements this innovative financing RAS unlocks.

We believe the Multiple Trading Relationships proposal will benefit consumers by providing customers with more choice over how they buy and receive fair payment for exported solar. 

Rewiring Aotearoa is very supportive of the Electricity Authority’s introduction of requirements for distributors to provide payments for exports at peak based on the avoided long run marginal cost of peak demand. This will fairly support consumers to invest in batteries and encourage people to supply surplus energy to the network when it is needed, benefiting all customers through lower electricity costs that we all pay through our power bills. To unlock the full extent of these benefits it is important that the intended group of customers have access to these payments. This intended group is the small businesses who do not have the bargaining power to negotiate fair benefits. It excludes large customers who are already more likely to be rewarded for the benefits their injection (exports) provides. Unfortunately the preferred proposal the Electricity Authority (the Authority) has set out in this consultation will not achieve this, and will reduce benefits to customers and does not align with the Authority's statutory objectives.

We strongly support the Electricity Authority’s aim of removing unnecessary barriers to more efficient investment in distributed generation and maximise the benefits it brings for all New Zealanders. It is great to see the progress the EA is making in its Networks connection workstreams which will translate in real benefits for consumers. We agree with the Electricity Authority's description of benefits from distributed generation and support the proposals set out in this consultation although propose some additional measures and modifications.

Solar and batteries - in homes and EVs - offer signicant resilience benefits during times of crisis and the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme can help unlock private investment.

Electrification is the single biggest opportunity to improve fuel security in New Zealand and that's why we think we need a bold national energy independence plan, not just more incremental changes to our current fuel security plan.

Unmanaged EV charging that occurs at network and system peaks could add unnecessary electricity infrastructure investment, increasing bills for all customers. Investment in our networks is scaled to meet peak demands and has the potential to significantly increase electricity bills over the coming decades. It is important we take action to shift demand, where it makes sense, to avoid peak demand increases. Rewiring Aotearoa is very supportive of the efforts the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is taking to consider options to deliver a more flexible electricity system that will lower system costs for all consumers. Uptake of smart EV chargers is one way to manage peak EV demand and support a lower system cost. However we do not think there is a strong enough case to mandate that all fixed EV charging units sold in New Zealand must be smart.

Rewiring Aotearoa supports the proposed changes to Multiple Trading Relationships (MTR) (allowing two traders – distributed generation and consumption), which will increase consumer choice and introduce more competition to retail tariffs. For example, it will disincentivise tariffs that offer competitive export tariffs, but also ramp up consumption tariffs. The Electricity Authority should also implement changes at this time that require retailers to allow large sites to share solar across multiple co-located installation control points (ICPs, i.e. ICP aggregation), and facilitate peer to peer trading for small scale renewable generators with local sites. Rewiring Aotearoa disagrees that delaying these steps via a staged approach is in consumers best interest. Consumers should not have to wait until demand increases to unlock the benefits of their solar and battery systems or access more competitive options from retailers. This should be supported now, to help consumers make investment and retail tariff decisions that reduce their overall energy bills.

We appreciate that broader resource management reform is underway that will ultimately provide a more consistent national framework. However, we cannot afford to wait for the perfect system while workable solutions are delayed. In the meantime, inconsistent and unnecessary consenting requirements for small-scale ground-mounted solar are slowing down projects that could deliver immediate benefits - lowering energy costs, strengthening resilience, and supporting the grid. While long-term reform is important, immediate adjustments will ensure small-scale solar isn’t held back by outdated or inconsistent rules.

"Investing in natural gas in homes doesn’t make economic sense anymore for New Zealanders ... Rewiring Aotearoa’s view is that the Government should support a managed transition away from natural gas for the homes and non-industrial businesses connected to reticulated natural gas distribution networks. This would help address inequity for households on low incomes and renters, and provide greater certainty over how quickly customers will disconnect, when networks would likely retire and cost recovery timelines."

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.

Rewiring Aotearoa is extremely supportive of the focus the Electricity Authority is putting into exploring opportunities and seeking views on a more ‘decentralised’ electricity system. It’s great to see the release of the Green Paper seeking views from New Zealanders on the role they can play in the future electricity system and how a more decentralised electricity system should evolve. As the Green Paper explains New Zealanders will benefit from a more decentralised, community-centric energy system through lower energy bills, greater energy resilience, fuel security and lower emissions. However there are some assumptions and emphasis in the Green Paper that we think needs to change

Rewiring Aotearoa is supportive of the Innovation and non-traditional solutions allowance (INTSA) and the development of Guidance for submissions. Read our full submission by downloading the document.

While the potential implications of the Bill are wide-ranging, our submission has focused on the potential implications for the electrification of Aotearoa NZ if the Bill is enacted as proposed. This is pertinent to Rewiring’s work, because one of our core aims is to help reduce energy bills for customers - NZ’s households, farms, and businesses. Significant changes are needed to fix the status quo, and we are concerned that the Bill may inadvertently bake in the existing rules governing the sector.

Rewiring Aotearoa is supportive of the development of Publicly Available Specification for Residential solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage systems guidelines. These guidelines can provide a consolidated and trusted source of information to help households navigate the process of choosing and installing solar PV and batteries. There is some messaging and information in the PAS that we think needs to be changed or added to provide households with the best advice to support them to maximise benefits from solar PV and batteries. This includes removing the focus on pay back periods and informing households about cost savings from day one from solar PV and batteries financed over the life of the system. Households also need information about the potential risks of some existing lease to own sales models which provide little real benefit to households with the bulk of the savings captured in suppliers profits. Download the document to read our full submission.

In a cross-submission, Rewiring Aotearoa has responded to a range of concerns raised by other submitters in the Energy Competition Task Force's consulation.

We support the role that government procurement can play in benefitting every community across the motu. We agree that simplifying and streamlining the procurement process is important, and reducing rules is a logical starting point. However, this should not undermine key considerations and past efforts in ensuring government spending supports long-term positive outcomes. Government procurement can support us to go for growth by increasing productivity of energy, which is a fundamental economic input

Overall, Rewiring Aotearoa welcomes the objectives of this package of proposals. from the Energy Competition Task Force. We view the package as a critical step in improving energy system outcomes for all consumers. We consider retailers paying consumers fairly as a critical step, and we are mostly satisfied with the Task Force’s approach to this (initiative 2C) and think it will create better outcomes for New Zealand consumers and the energy system as a whole. In contrast, the Task Force’s preferred option around how distributors are required to reward peak input from consumers (initiative 2A) will not in our view meet the Task Force’s (or the Electricity Authority’s) stated objectives.

Focusing on the emissions reductions at home through electrification is a major opportunity (and challenge) for Aotearoa NZ. Homes, farms, and businesses must play a role in driving emissions reductions through electrification and the potential must be recognised and addressed to our 2035 international climate change target.

Rewiring Aotearoa believes we need to make better use of our existing infrastrucuture, see customers as an essential part of a 21st Century energy system and that electrification will lead to much greater energy security and resilience.

Rewiring Aotearoa's submission to the Electricity Authority on its Network Connections Project - Stage One is in and it is good to see the Authority practicing its statutory objective of protecting the interests of consumers.

The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment opened consultation on a discussion document about amendments to the Electricity Safety Regulations to expand the permitted voltage range for electricity supply. Rewiring Aotearoa's submission believes changes are needed to prepare for the rapid adoption of customer energy resources, and electricity distribution companies need to be compelled to allow export limits to be increased.

The Department for Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Ministry for the Environment proposed a topic for a Long Term Insights Briefing entitled 'Everyone plays a part: building New Zealand’s resilience in the context of global trends and our unique natural environment'. Rewiring Aotearoa's submission says energy security and resilience, critical infrastructure failing and commodity/energy price shocks are especially important for Aotearoa NZ’s resilience to future challenges, and farms can also play an important role.

Our ERP2 submission outlines what we think needs to be done to improve the Government's plan to reach our climate targets, electrify the Aotearoa New Zealand economy and build a fairer future energy system for New Zealanders that saves people money and does not leave anyone behind.

There is a relevant saying: ‘Information wants to be free’. While the proposed Consumer and Data Product Bill takes a step in that direction, it does not offer the level of freedom that could be technically accomplished, nor the level of freedom that is likely to unlock the maximum level of innovation.

Rakiura / Stewart Island faces the highest electricity prices in New Zealand. Successive governments have funded report after report and numerous fly-in visits by Ministers have failed to change this situation for the local community. Rewiring Aotearoa believes the opportunity is to harness existing solar and battery technology to deliver significant cost-of-living savings and reduced emissions at scale via electrification on Stewart Island right now. With financed solar and batteries, electricity usage costs for residents could be halved without delay. Rewiring Aotearoa has been engaging with the local community, who have been sending us their power bills. On Saturday 27th April some of the Rewiring team visited Stewart Island (including Mike Rewi who has strong whakapapa to Stewart Island). What we are hearing from this community is many locals fear the proposals and the likely “preferred option” will be focused on replacing current diesel generators, not on reducing the cost of energy for consumers. Our proposal outlines Rewiring Aotearoa’s pitch for an alternative approach to develop a community-led energy solution for the Island.

Overall, we encourage the Commission to think beyond competition merely as a driver for innovation, to consider the outcomes from innovation for the long term benefit for New Zealanders. Rewiring Aotearoa believes one such outcome from market innovation is supporting the electrification opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand. The Commission has the opportunity to play an active role in driving this not just through the energy market, but also through the personal banking market. It is important that these functions are not seen in isolation, but as a system, to better realise the Commission's role in delivering on NZ’s emissions reduction plan, and 2050 Nationally Determined Contribution.

18 March 2024: New Zealand is one of the first places in the world where electric appliances and vehicles are now more affordable than their fossil fuel equivalents. A new report has shown that, on average, homes currently using gas appliances and petrol vehicles could save thousands every year if they went electric and got their electricity from a combination of rooftop solar, home battery and New Zealand’s already highly renewable grid.

In this future, consumer infrastructure needs to compete on a level playing field with traditional infrastructure – if a $10,000 battery on a consumer’s premises can provide the same service as a $20,000 supply-side asset (a network or generation investment), the consumer’s asset should be selected for the service. However, today there is a systemic bias towards traditional infrastructure largely because it is seen as significantly more ‘dependable’. There are a variety of historical reasons for this. Our primary context to this submission is that many of the assumptions and rationale for this bias are quickly falling away, and DPP4 provides a significant opportunity for the Commerce Commission (the Commission) to reset the assumptions and correct some of this bias.

The EA has the ability to take a leadership role in the energy transition on behalf of electricity consumers. Far more than the Commerce Commission’s oversight of EDBs investment plans, the EA’s network pricing workplan gives consumers agency in the development of the electricity system. When consumer agency is stifled, they will likely have significantly worse financial outcomes on their bills. Much of the necessary changes have been demonstrated already locally or overseas, and the remaining question is not if the changes are possible but if we as a nation will have the courage to implement them on the timeline required to drive better energy transition outcomes for consumers.

We're definitely not running on fumes this week ... Why our electric future - from e-bikes to e-boats - looks both fun and functional, why swapping fuel for finance is crucial for homeowners (and access to capital is crucial for businesses like Chargenet that are helping to speed up the transition), how renewable energy projects are helping developing countries and low-income communities, and an ad from 1929 that reminds us of something.

New suburb-wide electrification pilot projects set to kick off in Australia, Fonterra's electrification plan to upgrade its boilers and trial EV tankers, Napier EV charging business Kwetta eyes up global expansion, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi talks about the massive rise of electric taxis, the German balcony solar movement spreads into Spain, and what if fossil fuel cars were the new technology?

Some big switch energy this week as solar panels go vertical on farms (and on fences), induction disappears in fancy kitchens and celebrity chefs move towards the magnets, Counties Energy pushes a vision of the future that we can get behind, Bunnings spots a trend and launches a new range of EV charging products, and a brilliant game created to annoy asset managers investing in fossil fuels.

We're getting high on electrons this week as aviation goes electric in New Zealand and around the world, the rise of the anti Elon Tesla Club, how Toyota could be the next Kodak after ignoring the rise of EVs, inside the struggle of a family-owned oil company and more marae add solar and batteries to prepare for emergencies.

2025 is off to an electric start, as BYD announces a big price drop for some models in Australia (and the country hits record EV sales in 2024), Kia goes electric for the Australian Open , Rafa does some electric surfing, and Mike Casey tows tonnes of electric cherries with his EV9, new research from Massey and Lincoln looks at the win-win of combining solar panels and agriculture, and why pay for an expensive, unpredictable fossil fuel subscription when you could lock in the savings (and emissions reductions) of going electric.

Charge your glasses for the last Electic Avenue of the year, with research from Australia showing areas with higher unemployment rates are more likely to seek out the cost savings and bill certainty of solar, residents of Thames protesting about high petrol prices are reminded that electricity is the cheapest fuel and rooftop solar is the cheapest electricity, the first Windrose electric truck has landed in New Zealand and the efficiency of electricity smashes the other options, why tradies will be the heroes of the energy transition (and have a big role to play in terms of recommendations) and a clever induction stove that doesn't require any wiring changes.

Using heatpumps instead of fossil fuels is shown to save lives and money, Powerco's plea to its gas customers that they avoid reality, Paddy Gower visits a zero energy bills home, EV charging sees the light and takes to the streets, and the Popemobile plugs in.

Lots of electric gifts under the tree this week as batteries keep getting cheaper, hydrogen still not the solution for light transport, cutting carbon with electric lawnmowers, how electric wallpaper can help get homes off gas, and solar powered hats, candy floss, festivals and maybe even movies.

The electric bandwagon is speeding up, as EECA launches a clever cost-saving campaign showcasing the benefits of electric homes, Octopus opens the doors of New Zealand's first zero energy bills home this weekend, the silent solar revolution is spreading through the developed world, a glorious graph that shows energy economics winning over politics, Ford's new EV ute shows its towing prowess, and Mike Casey embraces his inner electric bogan.

A big week in the long-running battle to turn EVs into batteries on wheels, researchers prove that using cheap solar during the day to heat the water is a good idea for customers and the grid, a solar map of New Zealand that offers lot more detail, tiny turbines (and tiny homes inside massive turbines) and a flood resistant EV.