SwitchDin submission to NZEA Issues Paper on Review of Common Quality Requirements

New Zealand’s Electricity Authority is reviewing the technical requirements for distributed energy resources (DER) to help prepare for the expected future uptake of DER.  

SwitchDin urges the Electricity Authority to consider the ‘low hanging fruit’ based on lessons learned from reforms in Australia:

1. Mandate AS/NZS 4777.2:2020

Require all inverters connecting to distribution networks to comply with AS/NZS 4777.2:2020. This is already required in Australia and would deliver network and system-wide benefits while causing little or no inconvenience to industry.

2. Establish the foundations for a digital compliance framework

Verification and compliance of inverters with technical standards is fundamental to ensuring that inverter-based energy resources perform as required. Manual inspection and verification is prohibitively expensive. A digital compliance framework will significantly reduce costs over the long term.

3. Develop an interoperability policy and regulatory framework 

Soon, most inverters installed in New Zealand will have a communication channel that is compliant to IEEE 2030.5 CSIP-Aus. However, this will be unusable unless distribution networks can match the capability with their servers.  

4. Establish a register of distributed energy resources

Distribution networks will require visibility of DER. A central DER Register is needed.

5. Empower customers by enabling access to local, real time metering data

Customers (and their authorised agents) will require access to local, real time data from the meter to enable optimisation of assets at the site level and for conformance with network requirements such as flexible export limits. If the real-time data is not available from the meter, the alternative is to install multiple meters. This places an unnecessary cost burden on consumers. 

6. Establish a regulatory framework for voltage management on the low voltage distribution network

Voltage management is a critical factor influencing the capability to host large amounts of DER on the distribution network. Regulation of voltage management will become increasingly important as DER penetration increases.

7. Review and update the voltage standard

The Authority should consider aligning with the European voltage standard (IEC 60038) which is 230V±10% instead of New Zealand’s current 230V±6% requirement. This is very likely to be the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ for solar enablement policies.

Read our full submission and recommendations here: