Flexibility and EVs – Infrastructure
The Other Path: How New Zealand Can Grow by Treating Flexibility and EVs as Infrastructure The BCG Energy to Grow report usefully describes the challenges facing New Zealand’s electricity system as domestic gas declines and demand rises. It does not, however, fully explore a second path that already exists alongside the incumbent one. This path […]
Energy to Grow
Energy to Grow, for Whom? What the BCG Report Says — and What Consumers Were Never Asked The recently released Energy to Grow report by BCG has being cited as an authoritative roadmap for New Zealand’s energy future. It deserves to be read carefully. What is significant just as much as what the report says, […]
Households as Energy Infrastructure
New Zealand’s power system swings between two costly extremes. At times, we waste clean electricity because there is nowhere for it to go.At other times, we pay more for power and burn coal or gas to insure against shortages. Those swings don’t stay inside the electricity sector. They flow straight into: This is not just […]
EV’s – Strategic Infrastructure
New Zealand’s Electric Vehicle (EV) debate has drifted into the wrong frame. We talk about uptake rates, incentives, and whether people are “ready”, when the numbers tell a much simpler story: the transition is already economically inevitable, and slowing it is quietly costing the country billions. Using conservative assumptions — a light-vehicle fleet of around […]
Monetising V2G
Why V2G, incentives, and pricing reform are converging in Queenstown — and why the rest of NZ should care Queenstown is growing fast. Permanent population, visitor numbers, electrified transport, and electric heating are all rising together, and the local electricity system is feeling it. The existing high-voltage conductor feeding the region is approaching its limits. […]
CAC Replacement
Summary – Letter to Minister for Consumer Affairs The disestablishment of the Consumer Advocacy Council (CAC) has left a recognised gap in expert, evidence-based representation for households, small businesses, and prosumers in New Zealand’s electricity system. MBIE’s own briefing confirmed that no other group has the capacity or technical expertise to fill this role, and […]
CAC Uncomfortable Examples
CAC submissions that were “uncomfortable” for the EA These are the stand-out ones that really put the heat on the Authority’s performance and mandate. (a) Consumer Care Guidelines – “voluntary isn’t good enough” In October 2023, CAC’s submission on Options to update and strengthen the Consumer Care Guidelines said, in essence: That’s a very direct […]
CAC too Effective?
Why the Closure of the Consumer Advocacy Council Matters More Than Wellington Admits New Zealand is trying to upgrade an electricity system built for the 1980s into one that can support rooftop solar, home batteries, EVs, V2G, flexible demand, and local energy markets.That transition requires public trust — especially from the households and small businesses […]
CAC Gone
Who speaks for consumers now that the Consumer Advocacy Council is gone? In 2019, the Electricity Price Review (EPR) concluded something basic but important:small electricity consumers didn’t have a strong, independent voice in the system. To fix that, the Government set up the Consumer Advocacy Council (CAC) in 2020 as a ministerial advisory committee. Its […]
V2G Imminent
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G): Your Car as a Power Station Electric vehicles are quietly becoming one of the most powerful energy assets ever built. Soon, the same battery that drives you to work could also help power your home, your school, and your community. What’s Coming Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology allows an EV to both charge and discharge […]