Queenstown could become New Zealand's testing ground for the future of electricity, with plans for the country's first electricity innovation sandbox potentially allowing households and businesses to trial everything from solar for renters and energy sharing to using electric vehicles to power homes.
QUEENSTOWN, 23 September 2026: The Electricity Authority has announced its intention to scope and develop New Zealand's first electricity innovation sandbox in the Queenstown-Lakes region, creating a controlled environment where new energy technologies and business models can be tested in real-world conditions.
The concept could allow selected electricity rules to be temporarily relaxed or exempted for approved trials while consumer protection, safety and electricity reliability requirements remain in place.
For ordinary households, the implications could eventually be significant.
Potential trials identified by Rewiring Aotearoa include allowing landlords to sell rooftop solar electricity to tenants more easily, businesses sharing solar generation between different meters, plug-in solar, greater use of electric vehicle batteries and allowing consumers to have multiple electricity trading relationships.
What exactly is an electricity sandbox?
Despite the name, it has nothing to do with building new electricity infrastructure in a literal sandbox.
A regulatory sandbox creates a defined environment where innovators can test products, services or business models without necessarily being subject to every existing regulatory requirement.
Rewiring Aotearoa research and development lead Josh Ellison compared it to giving children a safe place to experiment.
The important protections stay in place, he said, while rules that may unnecessarily prevent innovation can potentially be relaxed.
The Electricity Authority has already been exploring this concept.
Its Power Innovation Pathway provides regulatory support to innovators trying to bring new electricity products and services to market, while its earlier work identified regulatory sandboxing as a possible next step.
The Authority says its existing Queenstown work is intended to identify commercial, technological and regulatory barriers and use lessons from local trials to inform future electricity regulation nationally.
Why Queenstown?
Queenstown-Lakes and Central Otago stood out because of consumer interest, industry and community readiness and the potential for successful ideas to be scaled elsewhere, according to Electricity Authority Power Innovation Pathway Manager Jono Barnard.
Queenstown is also facing some particularly interesting energy challenges.
Electricity demand is increasing, the network faces future investment decisions and the region has resilience concerns associated with the Alpine Fault.
At the same time, adoption of technologies such as rooftop solar, batteries and electric vehicles is growing.
That combination makes the region a useful place to test whether smarter use of electricity can reduce pressure on infrastructure while giving consumers greater flexibility.
Five ideas households could eventually see tested
The sandbox is still being scoped, meaning these should not be interpreted as confirmed products that Queenstown residents can sign up for immediately.
However, Rewiring Aotearoa has identified several potential areas for trials.
| Potential trial | What it could mean |
|---|---|
| Solar for renters | Landlords could potentially generate rooftop solar and sell electricity to tenants more easily |
| Solar sharing | Businesses could make better use of solar generation across multiple electricity meters |
| Plug-in solar | Small solar systems could potentially become easier for households to use if regulatory changes allow them |
| Vehicle-to-grid | An EV battery could supply a home or send electricity back to the grid |
| Multiple Trading Relationships | Consumers could potentially deal with more than one electricity provider or energy buyer through the same connection |
These technologies are at different stages of regulatory readiness, so inclusion in the sandbox discussion does not mean all are currently permitted.
Could renters benefit from rooftop solar?
One particularly interesting proposal is Solar for Renters.
Rooftop solar generally provides its strongest direct financial incentive to the person who owns the property.
That creates a challenge in rental homes because the landlord may have to pay for the system while the tenant receives much of the benefit through lower electricity costs.
Rewiring Aotearoa argues existing rules can create additional barriers when a landlord wants to generate electricity on the property and sell that power to the tenant.
A sandbox could provide an opportunity to test alternative arrangements and determine whether they work for landlords, tenants and the electricity system.
What about plug-in or balcony solar?
Another potentially significant development is plug-in generation, sometimes called balcony solar.
These are generally smaller generation systems designed to make solar accessible to people who may not be able to install a conventional rooftop system, including some renters and apartment residents.
Plug-in generation is currently prohibited in New Zealand under a WorkSafe notice, but that position is under Government review.
The Electricity Authority has separately been consulting on how electricity rules should accommodate the technology if it becomes available in New Zealand.
The Authority says the technology could expand access to self-generation for people traditionally excluded from rooftop solar.
So while plug-in solar is being discussed as a possible future sandbox application, consumers should not interpret that as permission to install such systems now.
Your electric car could become part of the power system
Vehicle-to-grid technology could be another important area.
Most electric vehicles contain batteries considerably larger than a typical household battery system.
With compatible two-way charging equipment, an EV can potentially do more than consume electricity.
It can store electricity when supply is plentiful and send some of that energy back into a home or electricity network when demand is high.
In practical terms, a parked car could become part of the household energy system.
Vehicle-to-grid operation is already possible within New Zealand's regulatory framework, according to Rewiring Aotearoa, but the organisation believes existing rules could be improved.
Queenstown is already involved in a community vehicle-to-grid trial.
Could you sell solar power to someone other than your electricity retailer?
Another potentially transformative concept is known as Multiple Trading Relationships, or MTR.
Under the conventional retail model, a household generally has one electricity retailer responsible for both the electricity it purchases and arrangements around electricity exported from its solar system.
Rewiring Aotearoa argues that this limits competition.
Under a multiple-trading model, a consumer could potentially purchase electricity from one company while another provider competes to buy their excess solar generation.
More advanced models could eventually allow locally generated electricity to be traded with another consumer or community facility.
The precise design would depend on the regulatory framework and any trial conditions.
Octopus Energy joins project
Electricity retailer Octopus Energy says it plans to participate in the project.
Its Head of Pricing and Innovation, David Charlton, said the company wants to take retail energy innovation from controlled development into real-world use.
The company expects to trial products aimed at reducing customers' electricity bills while also reducing pressure on the local network.
Electricity network companies Aurora Energy and PowerNet have also expressed support for using the region to test new approaches.
Aurora chief executive Richard Fletcher said a trial environment could help explore ways of creating a smarter and more flexible electricity system.
PowerNet chief executive Paul Blue said Queenstown provided an opportunity to test new approaches and identify better ways of using existing electricity networks.
Why electricity rules are having to catch up
New Zealand's electricity system was largely designed around a relatively straightforward model.
Large generators produced electricity, networks transported it and households consumed it.
Technology is changing that relationship.
A growing number of households can now generate electricity through solar panels, store electricity in batteries and potentially hold significant additional energy in an electric vehicle.
Consumers are therefore gradually moving from being electricity users alone to becoming small-scale generators, storage providers and potentially
