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Generate your own power

Location, practicality, independence, cost, and environmental consciousness are amongst the reasons you may choose to generate your own power.

Doing it safely on our network, and within New Zealand’s guidelines, is something we can work on together.

Distributed Generation

Distributed generation is an industry term for private generation sources.

Private generation is usually located at a home, business or farm to produce electricity to use on the premises and are often capable of putting unused power back into a network.

Small wind turbines and solar panels are the most popular types.

Other technologies such as micro-hydro schemes and cells that store solar energy are also in use.

If you’re generating simply to power your own property and reduce your need to purchase electricity from a retailer, as a homeowner, you might install solar panels on your roof to reduce your monthly power bill.

There are two types of application forms for those wanting to install distributed generation on our network:

Small systems
10 kilowatts or less. Typically these are for solar panels installed in homes or small businesses. They can also be wind-powered, photovoltaic cells or even micro-hydro systems.

Larger systems
Greater than 10 kilowatts and typically used for commercial, industrial or rural purposes.

Application forms

 

Solar installations

If you’re keen to use renewable solar energy on our network, you’ll need to choose a solar installer to apply to us for approval on your behalf.

This is to make sure your installation is electrically sound, compliant and safe. Approval can take up to 10 working days.

Connecting to our network

  1. A licensed electrician who has applied and got our approval to complete your wiring and electrical documentation.
  2. An approved inverter. An inverter is an electrical device that transfers energy from the solar panel to your house supply. It has built-in electrical protection systems that keep you and electrical workers safe.
  3. Information on the size of your energy system. This allows us to manage any congestion on the network from any surplus energy.

Safety

It’s important we know you’re using solar energy. If we have to switch the power off for any reason, your lines from your solar installation could still be ‘live’ and a huge risk to the safety of our linemen.

If you have an existing solar energy system that we’re not aware of, please phone us so we can update our records and ensure the installation is safe.

Exporting energy

If you wish to export surplus energy from your solar installation to the national grid, you need to speak to your electricity retailer to organise this.