Improving visibility of generation investment

We are working to improve the information available on the pipeline of new developments of renewable generation and large-scale load.

As demand for electricity increases, we are seeing more and more renewable generation projects underway in New Zealand.

The Authority-commissioned 2023 Generation Investment Survey showed that the pipeline of committed new generation has lifted from 2,600 GWh in 2022 to nearly 5,000 GWh, and the pipeline of actively pursued generation that could be completed by 2027 has grown to 20,800 GWh from 12,700 GWh.

Improving the visibility of this pipeline, as well as connections of large-scale load, battery energy storage systems, and projects in distribution networks will help with monitoring long-term security of supply. The additional information will help support monitoring of competitive outcomes, and constraints to investment, as well as investment confidence and information for decision-making.

Currently, information about projects in the pipeline — for generation, large-scale load, upgrades and storage, both transmission and distribution — is limited.

This work aligns with recommendation 17 in tranche 2 of the Market Development Advisory Group’s report Price discovery in a renewables-based electricity system, as well as building on the publication in 2022 and 2023 of the Generation Investment Survey and Transpower’s existing connection enquiry dashboard.

Work on this project will align with new connection processes for distributed generation under the Part 6 Code review.

We intend to publish a consultation paper in relation to this project in mid 2024. We will be consulting on what level of information we will collect and what we will publish.

The purpose of this project is to collect and publish data on the pipeline of investments in new generation (and load) connecting to both the transmission network and distribution network (above a certain capacity).

We plan to develop a dashboard that will provide ongoing and increasingly sophisticated measurement of key investment data.