National announces plan that aims to ‘tackle costs pushing up power bills and build a more secure future for New Zealand’

If re-elected into government, National says it has a nine-point plan to help deliver more energy supply, competition and more choice for households and businesses, “to help make power more affordable.”

Making the announcement on Friday morning, National energy spokesperson Simeon Brown launched Electrify 2.0, the party’s power plan.

“Secure, affordable power is key to keeping homes warm, keeping businesses competitive, and supporting the growth that creates jobs and lifts wages,” Brown says.

If elected, National will:

• “Unlock new energy development zones” by letting developers, major users and investors build transmission by amending the Electricity Industry Act and working with the Electricity Authority on changes to the Electricity Industry Participation Code so transmission pricing methodology can recover costs from those who use them
• Allow New Zealanders to choose an accredited contractor to “make connections faster and cheaper” instead of having to go with the one their network provides them
• Let New Zealanders with solar or a battery sell to any power company, not just the one they buy from - National would direct the Electricity Authority, through the Government Policy Statement and legislation if needed, to have this in place within two years
• Opening the backup market to level the playing field for backup power as a way to tackle the country’s dry year problem
• Look at lines charges and review the rules that set them to make “necessary” changes and require residential and small business solar connections to be approved within two working days
• Writing into law that affordability becomes a core objective for the Electricity Authority
• Cut “more red tape holding back renewables”
• Launch the Home Energy Fund which would allocate low-interest, long-term loans to encourage households to switch to solar power
• Require AI data centres to bring their own new, firmed power so new digital investment “adds to the grid and creates jobs instead of pushing up prices”

The National Party had, in June, first announced its promise of introducing a Home Energy Fund.

Brown says the price of electricity itself is only one part of a power bill.

“Lines charges, red tape, weak competition, and the cost of keeping the lights on in a dry year all add to what Kiwis pay. Our nine-point plan takes on each of them.”

Line charges accounted for about two-thirds of the rise in the average power bill over the past year, Brown says.

"They're set under an outdated law, so we'll review it and make necessary changes ahead of the next price reset. We’ll also let Kiwis choose who does the connection work they're paying for.”

Reliability also matters, he says.  

"We need backup for when the lakes are low, but a few big power companies hold most of it, largely for their own use, and smaller power companies have no easy way to buy the backup they need to get through a dry year.

"We've already moved to give independent retailers fairer access to the contracts they need to compete with the big players. Opening up backup supply is the next step to levelling the playing field.”

And new demand needs new supply too, he says, so AI data centres would need to bring their own power “rather than push up bills for everyone else”.

“Labour would put all of that progress at risk,” Brown says.

National says: “New Zealand is on the right track. A re-elected National Government will keep delivering the secure, affordable energy, and the jobs that New Zealanders need.”

In response to National's plan, Labour says it's an absolute fizzer.

Labour energy spokesperson Megan Woods says: “After three years in Government, Simeon Brown should be delivering cheaper electricity, not another grab-bag of ideas and excuses."

“This is not a plan to bring power bills down. It’s an admission National hasn’t got a clue how to do it," she says. 

“New Zealand needs reliable, affordable power that gives businesses confidence to invest, grow and create good jobs. Instead, National is offering more of the same: more promises, more deregulation and more excuses."