Workshop held on reactive power and voltage coordination

The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko held a workshop on reactive power flows and voltage coordination across grid exit points (GXPs) on 26 February 2026 in Wellington and online.

The workshop attracted 80 people from electricity distribution businesses, generators, Transpower, academics and consultants.

With the increase in distributed energy resources connecting to the power system, both at grid and distribution levels, coordinating the changing pattern of reactive power flows and voltage across the GXPs is becoming more challenging.

The goal of the workshop was to discuss the technical challenges and brainstorm options to improve coordination of reactive power and voltage at the GXP. The discussions focused on a ‘NZ inc’ approach, which is quite topical given the recently published open letter calling for efficient solutions to growing networks. These discussions also support ensuring New Zealand’s electricity system remains secure and resilient, and capable of delivering lowest long-term cost to New Zealand consumers.

The topics discussed included:

• how reactive power and voltage flows across GXPs have changed over the last 25 years
• what and where investment in the network would be required as the behaviour of the power system changes.

View the accompanying documents to the workshop:

• Workshop slide pack
• Power factors in the New Zealand power system
• GXP Reactive Power Flow Assessment