Electrify NZ 2.0: What National's nine-point energy plan would do

National has released a nine-point energy plan, Electrify NZ 2.0, aimed at tackling the costs pushing up power bills. RNZ

Energy spokesperson Simeon Brown says the plan will deliver more supply, more competition and more choice for households and businesses, according to the 1 October report. The party's newsroom carries the package as 'Affordable power Kiwis can rely on' attributed to Brown. National Party That post describes the plan as building a more secure energy future.

Lines revenue in focus

One proposal concerns lines charges, the cost of moving power through poles and wires to homes and businesses. It works a bit like a freight charge on top of the price of the goods. National says lines charges account for around two-thirds of the rise in the average power bill.

The party would review the part of the Commerce Act that sets how much revenue lines companies can recover. Its policy document says the Commerce Commission last set that cap in November 2024, when interest rates were high, with the cap locked in until 2030.

National argues the timing matters, because a cap set when rates were high flows through to allowable revenue across that whole period.

The broader context here will be familiar to people who follow Parliament closely. Decisions on price-quality paths and allowable returns are normally left to the Commission to make at arm's length from ministers. A legislated review would bring that settlement back into the political arena and test the boundary between ministerial direction and independent regulation.

Retail, rooftop and the regulator

A second part of the plan would change the rules around the Electricity Authority, retail competition and small-scale generation such as rooftop solar.

National would make affordability a core objective for the Electricity Authority by writing it into law. The Authority already balances competition, reliability and efficiency alongside consumer interests when it makes decisions. A set affordability objective would change how it weighs those trade-offs when it amends the market code, supports the market and enforces the rules.

On retail, households and businesses with solar panels or a battery could sell the power they generate to any retailer or buyer, not just the company they buy power from. That would separate export from import. A customer could stay with one retailer for supply while arranging export, peer-to-peer trade or aggregation services elsewhere.

The plan would also require residential and small business solar connections to be approved within two working days. That is a service standard, not a technical or safety standard. It would put the onus on distributors to clear compliant applications quickly.

The plan would also launch a Home Energy Fund to provide low-interest, long-term loans for household power investment and enable plug-in solar. As described, the loans are linked to uptake of rooftop systems, batteries and plug-in products that avoid full installer-led connection work.

Zones, supply and large load

The supply measures combine new ways to pay for grid build with new requirements for large power users.

National would open up new energy development zones by letting developers, major users and investors build transmission and recover the costs from those who use it. That is a contestable, beneficiary-pays model for defined zones, where the parties that need new lines pay for them. It sits outside the current centralised model, in which Transpower builds the grid and costs are shared through the transmission pricing methodology.

The plan would also require AI data centres to bring their own new, firmed power. As stated, the requirement pairs new large demand with new firmed supply, meaning supply that is backed up to be available when needed. The material reported so far does not specify the technology, contracting form or compliance point.

As background, the OECD in its 2026 Economic Survey of New Zealand describes the electricity system as highly renewable but under growing pressure on security and affordability as domestic gas supply declines. OECD

Electrify NZ itself is not new language. The Ministry for the Environment describes Electrify NZ as the work programme to support private investment in electricity generation and networks. Ministry for the Environment The Government's October 2025 Energy Package behind that work focused on investing in security of supply and building better markets to improve affordability. Beehive Supporting material for that package said Electrify NZ will double New Zealand's renewable energy, and put distribution charges at roughly 25 percent of household electricity bills. Beehive

The documents note the two figures on lines and distribution charges measure different things. One is National's estimate of what is driving the recent increase. The other is the baseline share of the bill.

The broader context here is where the politics will sit. A Commerce Act review speaks directly to bill pressure without subsidising retail prices, but it reopens settled revenue paths and investor expectations. An affordability objective gives the Authority clearer political cover to favour lower prices, yet it will still need to reconcile that instruction with reliability and long-run investment. Freer export rules, faster connections and low-cost finance could lift uptake of rooftop systems, though much will depend on distributor delivery, retailer offers and technical limits on local networks. The pairing of development zones with bring-your-own generation for data centres points to a larger shift, from shared grid build toward users and developers underwriting the capacity they need.