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The great tour of energy

BEC’s Young Energy Professionals Network (YEPN) recently piloted the ‘Tour of Energy’ for 18 high school students across two high schools. The tour aimed to spark interest in the energy sector, and it worked - 75% of students are now more likely to pursue a career in energy! Students explored Wiri Hydrogen Refuelling, Huntly Power Station, and Karapiro. Looking ahead to 2025, YEPN plans to expand the tour to more schools, with five tours across Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury. However, this exciting expansion depends on securing additional industry funding. If you would like to get your brand out there and get involved. Get in touch here

TIMES-NZ Phase 3

BEC, EECA, and over 60 partners across the public and private sectors are refreshing the NZ Energy System Model – TIMES-NZ, building on the World Energy Council’s flagship scenarios. The WEC has just published its new scenarios, “Rock and Rivers.” The recent Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, geopolitical realignments, the rise of AI, and severe climate-change-related weather events have all profoundly affected the global economy and energy system. This month, BEC held its first workshop on what a new set of scenarios for NZ might look like. Stay tuned on the next steps and read more about the new WEC scenarios here. 

Community impact projects

Explore our new Community Impact Projects page on the World Energy Council website. This dedicated section showcases the transformative work of our Member Committees, Future Energy Leaders, and partners around the globe, demonstrating real-world impact and shared progress in sustainable energy.

World energy outlook

The 2024 edition of the World Energy Outlook has been released. The most authoritative global source of energy analysis and projections, it examines how shifting market trends, evolving geopolitical uncertainties, emerging technologies, advancing clean energy transitions and growing climate change impacts are all transforming what it means to have secure energy systems. Read more...

The state of the transition

Breakthrough Energy have released their 'The State of the Transition' report for 2024. Breakthrough Energy talk about the stages of innovation - how each step along a technology's journey from inception to commercialization poses new problems that take new approaches to solve. Bill Gates, Founder of Breakthrough Energy also gives his take in the report. Read more...

Submissions

BEC is currently responding to three consultations: MBIE’s improving diesel resilience and the EA’s two consultations on network connection pricing and simplifying the application process for connecting distributed generation and industrial load. BEC will reach out to members to discuss each consultation. Read more on our submissions here...

BRANZ household energy end-use project 2 (Heep2)

A national study of how, when and why people use energy in the home – is collecting vital data on indoor conditions, household energy use and occupant behaviours to help better understand how our homes perform. Read more...

EDB Challenge

In 2022, Ara Ake launched the EDB Challenge, an initiative aimed at bringing together electricity distribution businesses (EDBs) and global innovators. The resulting pilots involved eight EDBs partnering with four smart technology companies to address the growing challenge of low visibility in residential electricity networks (low-voltage networks). To find out more about the initiative and recommendations of the participants - Read more...

Electricity Authority consultation papers

The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko has opened two consultations with proposed changes to make it easier and faster to connect to electricity distribution networks, and start to rebalance connection pricing methodologies so they’re more efficient. Links to the consultation papers are here and here. To register for the 11 November online webinar on  the Authority's proposals to improve connecting to the distribution networks - Register here...

EECA's guide to commercial-scale rooftop solar

Rooftop solar has increased in popularity among businesses and is more affordable than ever. It can be a great option for businesses with high daytime energy use, like horticultural coolstores that keep produce cool on hot days. Businesses can access solar in a couple ways, either by buying solar panels outright or entering a power purchase agreement (PPA) with an energy supplier. EECA has developed a list of key questions to help you decide, along with case studies of businesses already benefiting from solar energy. Read more...

Genesis increases coal stockpile for winter 2025 amid gas shortage

Genesis will increase the coal stockpile at Huntly Power Station for next winter to ensure supply for its customers as a result of the country’s gas supply issues and changes in supply chain processes. As of 30 September, there was 243 kilotonnes of coal stored at Huntly, including 11 kilotonnes equivalent for counterparties with energy supply agreements. The stockpile target is approximately 500 kilotonnes (1,000GWh) to cover the autumn and winter peak demand period for its customers between March and August 2025. Read more...

New transformer for Manapoūri Power Station

Meridian Energy has taken delivery of a new transformer for its Manapoūri Power Station - no mean feat when that delivery weighs more than 100 tonnes! It was also the first time a piece of equipment this size has been barged across Lake Manapōuri. The new transformer will boost generation capacity at Manapōuri to around 768 MW – close to the maximum 800 MW allowed under its consent conditions, and great news for New Zealand’s electricity supply ahead of Winter ’25. Read more...

Ecobulb LEDs light up Christchurch

Genesis, Ecobulb and Frank Energy have distributed 48,994 Ecobulb LED lights to 5,161 customers in Christchurch on the Orion network. The following link provides a short summary video of this event - View more...

Heavy vehicle charging infrastructure

The number of battery electric commercial and heavy vehicles is increasing on New Zealand roads. In response to market demand, EECA is planning a Request for Proposals for a Heavy Vehicle Charging Infrastructure round of the Low Emission Transport Fund (LETF). This round of the LETF will demonstrate innovative technologies that are part of publicly available charging stations. It will not support projects that are solely chargers; rather, projects that enable the grid to support wider uptake of these chargers. Read more...

Geothermal focus in media

There has been national focus on geothermal within New Zealand, as politicians look towards renewable energy solutions. As part of this conversation, NZGA CEO, Kennie Tsui, was interviewed in a 1News feature on geothermal, looking into the feasibility of developing supercritical geothermal resources. Having geothermal recognised in such a public forum is vital for our industry, and NZGA is proud for the opportunity to advocate on behalf of its members. Watch the full news story here.

Call for submissions

The University of Auckland are calling for submissions to present at the New Zealand Energy Conference to be held in Auckland in April 2025. Submissions are now open and due by the 28th November 2024. Read more...

Calling all leaders: are you realising the potential of your culture?

Massey University and the Leadership and Governance Collective have developed a 15-minute survey designed by leaders for leaders. This survey was developed from years of research and consultation with  CEOs, senior leaders and governance professionals, ensuring the data collected is relevant to leadership and easy for time-poor executives to use. With your input, we aim to provide you with actionable insights your executive team can implement. Take the survey here... 

Electricity sector survey

The Electricity Engineers' Association (EEA) serves the electricity supply industry and is seeking diverse feedback from across the sector on where it should focus its time and effort.  Please contribute your voice by completing this 5 minute survey. You do not need to answer every question and you can be anonymous or, if you provide your email, you will go into the draw to win one of 10 $30 vouchers.