Our Energy Limited

We're proud members of FlexForum and really pleased with the critical contributions it is making to discussion (and, importantly, decisions!) about how to get flexibility playing a much greater role in NZ's power system and markets. Check out this latest insights report. One way we're currently putting our own shoulders to the wheel is through co-design of pilots for our new local flexibility market offering. Many thanks to our industry collaborators and funders for their support - more news coming on this initiative soon. https://lnkd.in/gKu3A_-N

It's enough to make you dance. 🦘 The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has completed its rule change process to enable 'flexible trading' for households and businesses to get more value from consumer energy resources (CER). Key changes: ● Large customers given ability to engage multiple energy service providers at their premises. ● Service providers for small and large customers able to separate and manage ‘flexible’ CER from ‘passive’ loads in the energy market. ● Market participants will be able to use in-built measurement capability in tech like EV chargers and batteries. Time to follow suit Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko? https://lnkd.in/gQcW3iMY

At Our Energy, we often talk about (and put into action) standing for a better, fairer, cleaner and more local energy future. Sometimes, others say it better than us. David Hall and Michael Rewi of Rewiring Aotearoa do a great job here of breaking down each of these important components. https://lnkd.in/gq2zDsvs

Excited to have our customers involved in a trial of Gridshare this winter. Gridshare is a NZ designed, ground breaking product designed to save households money on their heating bills. While Gridshare looks like a standard smart plug, this innovative new product uses proprietary hardware and AI smarts to learn how customers live and to synchronise the flow of energy demand with the grid - which helps people to save, without having to do anything!  Gridshare will create a warm (or cool) environment at the right times, in sync with the grid to maximise the use of off-peak energy, helping to keep wider system costs down while still helping folks to live comfortably and save.

Kia Whitingia - to be shone upon - lights the way. Community, business and government collaborating to effectively deliver an innovative model that works IRL, not just on a whiteboard or in a spreadsheet. We're proud of the role we play in this one alongside key partners like Clayton McNae of McNae Solar, Relectrify and, most importantly, the Kia Whitingia Community Collective. https://lnkd.in/gtfkq7hk

The 2024 Mindful Money Conference & Awards is less than 2 weeks away. In person tickets are going quick, but online spots are still available. We're excited to have John representing on the 'Ramping up investment in renewables' panel, facilitated by Terina Williams, alongside: ● Matthew Ward of SolarZero; and ● Bill Murphy from Purpose Capital. Expect some interesting, lively and potentially provocative (!) discussion. https://lnkd.in/gXAZyyJD

Stop what you're doing and listen to this pod. 💡 Lorenzo Kristov "I have two big shade trees that make my roof shady. So, I'm not a good candidate to put solar panels on my roof because there's too much shade. But my neighbors have sunny rooftops. So, for one, we ought to be thinking about solar energy at a neighborhood level or a community level where you maximize where there's solar exposure, you maximize the PV, but you also want to preserve tree canopy. You don't want people cutting trees to put on solar panels. So, we share. And the distribution wires are there so we can move the power over the local distribution wires, which is the way the laws of physics say it goes. According to the laws of physics, if you inject power into distribution wires, it's going to flow around to serve the nearby load, the path of least resistance." david roberts "Right. It's not going to flow up into transmission lines. Right." Lorenzo Kristov "It's not going to flow up, but that's the regulatory fiction, is that, "Oh, when you inject power there into a distribution wire, it flows all the way up to the bulk power system, goes through the ISO market, and the ISO sends power back down." That fiction, unfortunately, undermines the economic viability of local resources because they end up getting charged for stuff that they're not really using. So, it makes them more expensive than they ought to be." https://lnkd.in/dxaEZVKY

As some may be aware through the news media today, New Zealand's power system is facing a shortage of power generation to meet expected demand tomorrow morning. You can read more about the situation below. To get through this little period, there are some relatively simple things we can all do to help reduce the potential impact of this situation on ourselves, our communities and homes and businesses across the country. We're encouraging our customers without their own generation to think about non-essential electricity use that can be turned down or off between 6.30am and 9.30am tomorrow morning. This might include reducing or avoiding things like EV charging, electric water heating, laundry and dishwasher use during this time. We're also asking our customers with generation or storage to think about what non-essential electricity use they're able to reduce or avoid between sunrise and 9.30am tomorrow. This will have the impact of creating as much generation as possible that can be shared with other members of their communities. We’ve also arranged the scheduled discharge of a community battery during this time. As the NZ power system will be short of generation, every little bit that can be pushed back into the network during this time can help keep everyone's lights on. While this is a potentially serious situation for the NZ power system, there is also no need to be fearful, nor to avoid keeping ourselves and our families warm. If we all do our bit, our communities and the country as a whole can get through just fine, our lights will stay on and the impact on our wallets and power system emissions will be kept to a minimum. https://lnkd.in/eKHWsNwh

Great to see news of another collaborative, impactful and community-centric energy initiative get off the ground. Well done, Trust Tairāwhiti. 👏 "The project deliverables include energy monitoring software, community-driven energy retailing options, pool maintenance and swimming education support." https://lnkd.in/gf7jUPX3

🚨 Breaking news today 🚨 Australian regulator publishes draft rules for 'flexible trading'. Those following us for any length of time will know we've taken up a 'squeaky wheel' position on this type of regulatory reform in the NZ market. We've led industry involvement for similar change known here by the more clunky terminology 'multiple trading relationships' (MTR). No, this hasn't won us many friends, at least not among established players, who are quite comfortable with the status quo, thank you very much. This leads us to the conclusion that we must be right - and, it's seemingly clear that the Australian regulator now agrees. "The cost and benefit analysis for the rule change found that the costs associated with implementation of the proposed rule changes would be relatively low - in part because it would leverage existing systems. We also assessed the impacts on consumers with and without CER." Consultation open until 11 April. Gradually, then suddenly... https://lnkd.in/gQcW3iMY