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The case of a Taranaki marae that had a 400 per cent rise in its power bill has shown how ill-equipped energy companies are to cater to the specific needs of marae, according to a Māori energy expert.
Ōwae Marae in Waitara saw monthly bills rise from $400 to as much as $2000 after a solar installation on their new wharekai.
Te Piringa Pūngao managing director Ruka Te Moana (Te Whānau a Apanui, Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi) was one of the experts who helped figure out what went wrong.
“We all know that marae are non-profit organisations that rely on koha to survive, so you can imagine that going from $400 of running costs for electricity to two grand when you’ve just upgraded, spent a lot of money not only in a new kitchen but on a solar energy system and battery to sort that out. You can imagine how stressful that would have been on whānau,” he said.
He said the largest share of the bill came from Ōwae being charged based on their peak electricity demand at events such as tangihanga, effectively charging them the same as a commercial entity despite sitting dormant most days - unlike a typical business.
“Where the pricing structure falls apart is when the marae are getting charged for these peaks that they might only have once or twice a month. They’re actually getting charged for the capacity of those peaks for 365 days a year. That fundamentally doesn’t make sense. It’s unfair.”
The marae also had an expensive 300kVA transformer installed; however, Te Moana estimated it would only need a 50kVA capacity.
“So, a lot of things fell through the cracks there in terms of the EDB (Electricity Distribution Business), the electrical engineers, the installers. There was no communication; everyone just went off with a bit of paper, but there was no actual explanation. Then all of a sudden, the price has gone up.”
Te Moana said the pricing mechanism just was not fit for purpose when it came to the energy needs of marae.
“So on one hand, you’re getting these [marae], they’re electrifying, then you’re penalising them because the current pricing infrastructure is not in place to support that... In most cases, it’s not the size of the solar energy systems that are getting installed; it’s the increased load as a result of upgrades in facilities, and more often than not, kitchen upgrades.”
Te Moana said what happened to Ōwae was not an isolated incident. For marae wanting to electrify, he recommended getting a feasibility study done to understand the size of connection the marae would need as a result of switching to electric.
“[Solar] is the best way to electrify and minimise costs for sure, but there has to be someone across all of that to guide them through it, so that EDBs don’t take advantage and put assets out in the field that are not needed or are overspecced.”
Secondly, you needed someone who understood how much capacity was still needed to draw up from the grid and therefore what capacity transformer was needed, he said.
“Experiences like this make marae want to go fully off the grid, which is fine because they avoid these charges, but what it does is that it makes sure they’re totally reliant on their batteries; it means that they can’t use the grid for a backup, and then more importantly though it means that they can’t share via the grid, they can’t share any excess energy that they have with whānau.”
Report outlines potential benefits of electrifying marae
Earlier this week Rewiring Aotearoa published their Te Whakahiko i ngā Marae report, outlining that marae face rising electricity and gas prices, irregular demand, ageing buildings, and an energy market that is complex to navigate.
Rewiring Aotearoa community activator Matt Newman told RNZ there were benefits to electrifying marae; it could reduce day-to-day running costs and significantly lower the emission footprint of a marae.
“But perhaps more importantly, as we’re seeing across Aotearoa, is actually the resilience factor. You know, we know that marae open their doors in every situation, whether it’s a storm or a flood or whatever else. And we’re seeing marae all across the country doing that. And the ability for marae to keep the lights on, keep the hot water on and to be able to cook as well are really important.”
The key technical challenge to electrifying marae is that marae are so varying in their energy use, from remote rural marae that might be used a couple of times a month all the way up to urban marae operating services every day, he said.
The Rewiring report modelled six marae in two sizes and three levels of use, all running on LPG bottles, then switched their heating, hot water and cooking to electric.
“If we were to electrify the gas heating and the water heating and the cooking in marae, I think that could save somewhere between $6000 to $23,000 annually off the operating costs. And that’s the key thing there is that, yes, there is always an expense to the upgrade, but often these upgrades are happening through either iwi entities or through funding agencies,” Newman said.
However, as the case of Ōwae has highlighted, the electrification of marae could lead to unintended consequences, particularly if the right support was not given, he said.
“For marae, however, there aren’t a huge amount of places where they could turn to unless they’re engaging professional services around electrification. We know that that hasn’t often been in the funding piece either. You know, funders will happily fund upgrades for marae, but they won’t fund the due diligence that’s necessary to support marae in making really good decisions for the long-term future.”
Newman said there had been a failure in the duty of care to Ōwae.
“There should have been a realisation from somebody, saying, ‘hey, something is wrong here,’ and then a duty of care to the customer. And I’m really hoping that over the next couple of weeks, we can work to find a proper solution for Ōwae that includes the compensation for them for the past couple of years.”
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