Contributing to a lower carbon world
We’re committed to Aotearoa’s transition to net zero emissions by 2050. We’re preparing our networks for emerging technologies and low carbon alternatives, and we’re reducing our emissions by improving our ways of working. 

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  • carbon

    Contributing to a lower carbon world

    Goals and targets

    Here's what we want to achieve for Pou taiao over the short, medium and long-term. 

    Goals and targets FY25

    • Reduce gas fugitive losses - Survey our entire gas network (usually this would take 5 years), using our improved leakage detection vehicle.
    • Reduce gas fugitive losses - Evaluate gas leakage data quarterly while refining Marcogaz leakage model in preparation for setting a baseline for emissions reductions.
    • Customer decarbonisation - Measure our contribution to customer decarbonisation through:
      1) Forecast MWh electricity enabled through committed industrial decarbonisation projects (customers changing to a lower carbon energy source). 
      2) Additional MW capacity through public EV chargers on our network. 
      3) Additional MW capacity of Distributed Renewable Energy delivered directly into Powerco's electricity network (projects over 100kW) 
      4) Fossil gas volumes (GJ) displaced by renewable gas.  
    • Reduce corporate emissions - Reduce carbon emissions from our vehicle fleet by an additional 6%
    • Reduce corporate emissions - 100% of scope 1 and 2 target emissions sources have an emissions reduction plan demonstrating a holistic reduction target.
    • Customer decarbonisation - Complete our renewable natural gas feasibility and network integration project.
    • Reduce corporate emissions - Reduce generator usage through the management of reactive fault management. 
    • Customer decarbonisation - Reduce the average connection time for Electric Vehicle chargers to be installed on the Powerco network. During FY25 we will baseline connection times and adopt Powerco-managed connection process. 

     

    • Customer decarbonisation - 20% of residential and small commercial gas volume going through our network is renewable by 2030.  Identification of a specific year-on-year targeted renewable gas volume supply for FY25-FY30. 
    • Reduce gas fugitive losses - Reduce leaks on the gas network (and related emissions) over the next five years.
  • carbon

    Contributing to a lower carbon world

    What we've done FY24

    We’ve been making progress towards our pou whirinaki goals and targets. Here’s what we worked on between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

    What we've done FY24

    • Powerco's decarbonisation strategy was completed and published internally. Work on climate change adaptation is underway with plans included in the 2024 AMP.  Longer-term actions will be rolled into our network modernisation plan.
    • A pipeline of load and hosting capacity requirements was established, enabling short and long-term strategic planning.
    • FY24 saw a significant shift in fleet strategy, with our pool fleet electrified and changed 21 diesel utes for hybrid electric vehicles.   Although our target of 15% reduction in vehicle emissions wasn't achieved (in one year), we did reduce fleet emissions by 11%; and importantly we curbed the upward trend.  
    • A business wide public emissions reduction target was not set in FY24.  Significant progress was made in charting emissions reductions pathways for our internal target emissions sources.  We are still focused on setting a target - now proposed to include our gas line losses (originally excluded). 
    • Fast EV charger providers were supported with capacity studies to inform their rollout of chargers.  Process enhancements have been identified for FY25 implementation.  We have also improved the information and enquiry process for EV infrastructure on our website (https://www.powerco.co.nz/get-connected/ev-infrastructure).
    • Powerco's low carbon transition strategy was outlined in the 2023 Gas AMP, published in September - Chapter 2 and 4 External Forces and Future focused strategies.
    • A review on the integration of biomethane into the gas network has commenced. During FY25, we will complete an analysis for the potential to inject 250 TJ into the Manawatū network.

    • Progress towards this goal has been made through our FY24 target to set up a streamlined process. 
    • Technical standards for grid scale distributed energy were published during FY24. 
      A utility scale generation portal is now available on the Powerco website for information relating to large scale generation, including a hosting capacity map.
      We met our target with 225MW of utility scale generation conditionally approved. 

    • Permanent backup network generators
      Ongoing monitoring reveals that biofuel or hydrogen-based permanent network generators are not yet commercially available. Grid-scale battery storage for long-duration outages remains prohibitively expensive.  Our current focus therefore remains with combined solar PV, diesel generation and (short-term) battery storage for remote sites.  This is an area that we will continue to investigate and new solutions will be trialed as these become available.

      Temporary generators used during outages
      During FY24, we utilised a portable temporary small-scale battery (BESS) for a 7-hour planned outage.  This resulted in a 100% diesel reduction compared to standard diesel-only generation units.  Four portable hybrid generators that include a battery to reduce diesel use, have since been procured and will be used on unplanned outages in FY25.  These will provide insights for the application of this technology to potentially move to larger batteries for higher capacity requirements. 

    • During FY24, we announced two initiatives to investigate using biogas in our network to help customers to decarbonise. During FY25, we will conduct technical analysis and engineering design to understand the upgrading plant and transport methods required to bring the biogas to pipeline specification and inject into our network.

    • In FY24, we undertook a strategic shift in our organisation’s emissions reduction strategy, by directing more of our shorter-term resources into broadening our emissions reductions and setting credible ambitious reduction targets. Offsetting does not form part of this shorter-term focus, but we may revisit its role in the future.

  • carbon

    Contributing to a lower carbon world

    What we've done FY23

    We’ve been making progress towards our pou whirinaki goals and targets. Here’s what we worked on between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023

    What we’ve done FY23

    • A North Island boiler review was completed by partnering with EECA and DETA to identify large customers (or groups of customers) to quantify the scale of customer decarbonisation opportunities.  The results were used to inform Powerco’s 2023 Asset Management Plan.
    • Powerco's latest greenhouse gas inventory report is disclosed here. The FY23 report will be available later in 2023.
    • An investigation of science aligned emission reduction targets was undertaken in FY23. Alignment with science for specific emissions sources will be agreed with the business in FY24.
    • We understand the emissions profiles required to achieve the science aligned targets and are currently assessing the financial impacts of specific reduction initiatives. 
    • The small-scale connection process has been streamlined, but not yet fully automated.
    • No formal microgrids are yet in place. We are, however, actively working on various initiatives to reduce grid demand with distributed generation.
    • The Gas Asset Management Plan includes a section that outlines the low carbon strategy for the gas network. Learn more
    • An assessment of pipeline materials was completed with no compatibility issues identified for distributing low carbon gas. Standards are now being assessed to incorporate renewable gas.  System capacity is still to be assessed as renewable gas options are identified.
    • We are currently supporting over 50 (>1GW) solar farm enquiries.  A dedicated role to manage customers wanting to install large distributed generation (DG) was established, and an updated DG policy and technical connection standard have been initiated.  
    • During FY23, we continued with our vehicle fleet conversion and consolidated office locations. We’ve also improved our processes for measuring SF6 to aid with emissions reporting.  An emissions reduction strategy will be developed in FY24 to address our target emissions.
    • During FY23, the business developed and agreed our four climate change scenarios.  These will be used as part of our climate change risk assessments within the roadmap for climate reporting in FY24. 
    • Some preliminary work on our emissions reduction (including diesel and SF6 alternatives) was undertaken but no viable option is currently available.
    • An Energy Solutions team was established to support our customers with large decarbonisation projects.
    • A basis for long-term planning and strategy has been developed to evolve the electricity network to support customer driven renewable generation and energy trading.  This includes managing the pipeline of customer-driven renewable generation applications.
    • Our target of 20% reduction on natural gas volumes going through the network by 2030 (compared to FY20), will be achieved through the introduction of renewable gas alternatives and improved efficiency of gas customers.  Specific reduction targets will be set for FY25 – FY30 based on New Zealand’s gas transition strategy.
     

Empowering solar

Our target: to support distributed and renewable generation by enabling our customers' use of solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles.

Our mahi: we successfully connected Kāpuni solar farm to our electricity network. Kāpuni is able to power more than 520 homes.

Learn more

The pillars of our work