Levi Gibbs

Published: November 2, 2023

Submitting To: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)

Issue for Business: MBIE has released a paper outlining possible measures, including financial support mechanisms, regulatory changes and new guidance/standards to help support the transition. Our recommendations include: 1. Reduce uncertainty from NZ Battery Project and the 100% aspirational renewable electricity target. 2. Avoid duplicating existing work programmes, adhere to MDAG's recommendations. 3. Entrust assessment and measures surrounding competition to the EA and Commerce Commission. 4. Streamline consenting processes for transmission, distribution and generation. 5. Ensure regulatory frameworks facilitate proactive forward-looking investment in distribution/transmission. 6. Form industry consensus on the measures needed to ensure sufficient peaking capacity is available. 7. Ensuring settings balance the Trilemma. Despite price signals incentivizing new generation, prolonged high prices are unsustainable and detrimental to industry 8. Additional renewable penetration and growing peak demand is creating challenges for the grid. MDAG has demonstrated the need for more demand response to reduce the risk of blackouts. But for this to occur, demand response must be sufficiently incentivized for industry to offer their capacity.