Investment in new electricity generation will help reduce the amount you pay for electricity, but this will only happen over time as it takes time to consent and build new wind farms, solar farms and other types of generation.
New investment increases the supply of electricity and ensures that New Zealand has enough power as more homes, businesses and transport electrify and the economy grows.
Hydro also plays an important supporting role, because the water stored in lakes can be saved and used when demand increases, or when other renewable generation isn’t available.
What Meridian is doing
Meridian is investing in new wind and solar generation to increase renewable electricity supply, and looking to improve the efficiency of our hydro stations by increasing the amount of water we can store in our hydro lakes. We’re also building grid scale batteries to help meet those short periods of high demand at busy times. These investments help lower system costs and support more affordable electricity over the long term. This is the lens we believe matters when judging progress.