Planning for the future

Electricity plays an important role in everyday life across Kāwhia and surrounding areas, supporting homes, businesses, farms, marae, schools and essential community services.

We’re working with mana whenua, local residents, businesses, schools, essential services, community organisations and rural customers to build a clearer picture of current experiences, future electricity needs and priorities for the area.

We want to hear what matters most to you, now and in the future. This includes how well the electricity network meets local needs, how electricity use may change over time, and what should be considered as planning for the area progresses.

Reliability is one part of this work. We also want to understand local priorities, interest in options such as solar and batteries, and the choices or barriers that may influence what is practical for the community.

What we learn will also help improve how customers and communities are involved in future electricity planning.

Why we’re doing this work

Kāwhia and the surrounding rural communities are supplied by a long electricity network.

Severe weather, slips, vegetation and difficult access can make faults harder to reach and repair. Longer outages can affect water, communication, food storage, business activity and the services people depend on.

Network data tells us what is happening. Local knowledge tells us what it means in everyday life. We need both to make sound decisions about Kāwhia’s electricity future.

What we’re hearing so far

We’re building our understanding through community conversations, site visits, interviews with local organisations and what we’ve learnt from recent storms.

Early conversations have highlighted:

electricity reliability and timely information are important, particularly for rural and isolated households
disruptions can affect households, farms, businesses, marae and essential community services in different ways
the township and surrounding rural areas have different experiences and needs
there is interest in solar, batteries and other local energy options
cost may limit what individual households can take up, creating interest in community initiatives or partnerships.

These are early themes. Wider engagement will help us understand whether they reflect the experiences and priorities of the broader community.

How your input will help shape the work

What we hear from the community will help us:

build a clearer picture of current experiences, priorities and future electricity needs
consider what these insights mean for planning and services in the area
explore possible responses and partnership opportunities
understand the benefits, impacts and choices involved
report back to the community on what we heard and what happens next.

What are we looking at?

We’re exploring what could help meet Kāwhia’s current and future electricity needs, while supporting a reliable, resilient and adaptable electricity supply.

Areas we are exploring include:

improvements to the existing electricity network and how it operates
ways to strengthen reliability, resilience and communication
options that could support important community services when the network is under pressure or disrupted
how electricity needs may change as the community and local economy develop
emerging energy options and how they could contribute to Kāwhia’s future electricity needs
opportunities to work with marae, community organisations, Civil Defence and other local partners alongside potential network improvements.

As the work develops, local people will have opportunities to explore what could work well for Kāwhia and consider the potential benefits, impacts and trade-offs of different options.

Community feedback will be considered alongside network performance, technical requirements, affordability and long-term value. We’ll keep the community updated and explain how local feedback has helped shape the planning.

Upcoming hui and engagement sessions

We’ll update this section as other engagement opportunities are confirmed.

What happens next?

We’ll bring together what we hear and use it alongside network data, technical options and costs to shape the next stage of planning.

As the options become clearer, we’ll provide further opportunities for you to contribute.

We’ll report back on:

the themes and priorities identified through engagement
the options we’re looking at
how local input influenced our assessment
the decisions we make and the reasons for them
what will happen next.

Survey prize draw winners

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our Kāwhia electricity future survey and share their views with us.

Congratulations to our 10 prize draw winners, who each received a $150 Prezzy® Card: Horahaere, Jean, Kerry, Marama, Margaret, Megan, Ronika, Russell, Sara and Warick.

The feedback received through the survey, alongside our community conversations and workshop, is helping us build a clearer picture of local priorities and what matters most for the future of electricity in Kāwhia and surrounding areas.

Have your say

We want to hear from people across Kāwhia and the surrounding rural communities. You can share your views at an upcoming community workshop or contact us directly.

Email: communications@waipanetworks.co.nz

Phone: 0800 800 769

24HR FAULTS CALL 0800 800 769