Enabling investment and innovation
Transitioning to a more digital electricity system
Supporting New Zealand’s transition to a smarter, more connected and data-driven energy system.
Overview
We want a smarter, more digitalised energy system that supports increased consumer mobility – a future where households and businesses are active participants, equipped with data and innovative tools to switch providers, take advantage of new products and services, and share power with others in a system that works for them.
In June and July 2025, we sought feedback on our discussion document Our future is digital. This was our first step towards creating a whole-of-system view of what needs to be done to deliver more digital electricity system.
We are undertaking further engagement with interested parties to dive deeper into the challenges and opportunities. We will then develop a system-wide view of what’s happening, and a roadmap of actions for the Electricity Authority to take to help drive digitalisation across all points of the electricity system.
Timeline
Project background
This project is about shaping the industry rules to support New Zealand’s transition to a smarter, more connected and data-driven energy system.
We want to enable a digitalised electricity system that harnesses the power of data and new technologies to efficiently deliver a secure and reliable electricity supply, at the lowest possible cost. This will enable people to actively participate and benefit from the electricity system.
We have a number of projects underway to support the transition towards a more digitalised system. For example, we are:
- improving how we monitor the retail market to improve outcomes for domestic and small business consumers
- improving the transparency of network capacity and connection pipelines by making more information available
- supporting the development of a potential electricity consumer data right
- proposing rule changes to allow consumers to have contracts with multiple electricity retailers
- enabling easier retail switching by improving comparison and switching services and tools for consumers.
- exploring the concept of 'network visibility' – where more information about network constraints and capacity is made publicly available and is accessible – could bring important benefits to a range of parties.
Digitalisation is one of the three inter-related global trends that support a shift to a decentralised electricity system. Decentralisation in this context means shifting from large-scale electricity generation at a small number of sites across the country, to smaller-scale renewables and other energy resources located closer to consumers.
We have started the necessary discussion and debate around decentralisation and the future of our electricity system.
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