Everyday people deserve a seat at the energy table
Decisions about powering Aotearoa are largely shaped by generators, retailers, regulators, and lines companies - the organisations that built and operate our electricity system. For decades, this model delivered a reliable supply of energy, but the system was designed in an era when households, schools, and small businesses were viewed solely as end-users of electricity, and energy demand stayed relatively static.
The future is flexibility: Rewarding the untapped potential of everyday energy users
When we talk about the ‘future of energy’, headlines tend to go one of two ways: One, either new generation like solar farms and big batteries are (rightly) celebrated; or two, we panic about growing demand and looming shortages. Invariably, the solution put forward to the second is to “build more, generate more”. But this approach overlooks a great big missing piece: the grid.
The grid is the invisible hero of the energy transition.