With "electricity poverty" soaring in Tairāwhiti, local leaders are assessing the plausibility of locally owned, renewable energy grids.
The median wage for the Tairāwhiti region is one of the lowest in the country, yet residents face some of the highest energy bills — an increase in electricity prices exacerbating this.
The issue is being addressed by the Tairāwhiti Distributed Energy Programme (TDEP), an energy generation joint initiative developed by Toitu Tairāwhiti, iwi Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, and Ngāi Tamanuhiri, in partnership with Tairāwhiti Environment Centre.
"It aims to be an iwi-enabled and community and hapū-led project that is funded through investment to allow communities to control a larger proportion of their energy generation, so they’re not as vulnerable to the projected price increases for the more centralised energy production," programme engagement director Harley Dibble said.
Gisborne has the fifth-highest electricity prices of New Zealand’s towns and cities, yet residents earn less than the national median.
“Our incomes are 5-15% below the rest of Aotearoa, and our power prices are 10-15% higher,” Dibble says.
He believes solutions are right at our fingertips.
“The price of photovoltaic (PV) panels has been falling like a stone, and battery prices are likewise plummeting. There are straightforward ways for us to make power affordable for most of our Tairāwhiti whānau, but we need to do this at scale - for thousands of households.”
The TDEP initiative builds on what has been learned about renewable power from installations made in local marae and schools.
The project also aims to create a resilient power supply and reduce the spent time without power after major weather events, which a large portion of Tairāwhiti was subjected to after Cyclone Gabrielle.
“Keeping the lights on and houses warm is getting harder in Tairāwhiti than almost anywhere else in the country,” Toitu Tairāwhiti energy lead Amohaere Houkamau says.
The programme is in its technical and financial feasibility study and the research has a target completion date of March 31 next year.
Houkamau says there is a lot of work to do.
“We need to validate the technology and the financials, and we’re working with smart people from Tonkin+Taylor, Rewiring Aotearoa, Habilis NZ, the Tairāwhiti Environment Centre and local iwi to do exactly that.”
They plan to start a pilot project of installing standardised PV and battery systems for around 10 households next year.
After the pilot’s completion, they will begin the implementation project, involving the installation of about 5000 systems across Tairāwhiti in a virtual energy network.
The aim is to produce low-cost electricity through the rooftop systems, with households and businesses using the power directly.
Different financial options will also be explored throughout the feasibility stage.
Houkamau says with expected power increases from the national grid system, families are going to struggle even more with their electricity bills.
The latest quarterly Work and Income statistics show 255 hardship assistance grants totalling $165,719 for electricity and gas in the East Coast region (which also covers Wairoa and Hawke’s Bay) from March to June this year.
In the Canterbury region — including Christchurch, which has among the lowest electricity prices and a substantially higher population than the East Coast — 378 grants totalling $185,074 were distributed.
These grants also take into consideration people’s income levels.
Gisborne’s electricity (as of May 2024) cost 39c per kilowatt-hour (kWh), the same as Dannevirke, Hāwera and Masterton.
Wellington and Christchurch shared the lowest price of 31c per kWh, while Kerikeri had the highest energy bill at 46c per kWh.
Houkamau says help is coming with regard to the region’s high electricity bills.
“We are working as fast as we can to come up with better ways for whānau to generate, store and share electricity in Tairāwhiti, and to get those power bills down.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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