CSF’s response to the Government’s Energy Package
The Government’s Energy Package announced last week takes welcome steps to strengthen electricity security and investment confidence. Assessing options for firming supply, supporting new generation, and enhancing the regulatory framework are all important next moves on the supply side of the electricity system.
Yet New Zealand’s energy transition must reach further. In an energy system that already has mostly renewable electricity, the next big gains will come from making the rest of our energy system renewable — and that depends on a stable, affordable, and secure electricity backbone.
To achieve this, New Zealand needs an energy strategy that connects the system end to end — linking how energy is produced, delivered, and used — and providing the clarity, confidence, and policy-level coordination that markets alone cannot.
An effective energy strategy would:
- Set the destination – defining the energy system we are working toward and the outcomes that matter for affordability, reliability, and emissions reduction.
- Create an enabling environment – giving investors confidence through coherent long-term policy, clear roles for market participants, and alignment with overarching infrastructure and economic planning.
- Strengthen delivery capacity – ensuring government, regulators, and system operators have the expertise, coordination, and project pipelines needed to turn ambition into results.
- Foster partnership and flexibility – setting expectations for outcomes without over-specifying technologies, allowing innovation and competition to thrive.
- Embrace portfolio thinking – accepting that experimentation and diversity are healthy signs of a system adapting and learning.
Experience overseas shows that policy clarity and capable delivery can crowd in multiples of private investment, accelerating progress while maintaining fiscal discipline.
The Energy Package provides momentum on electricity security. Building on it with a clear, coordinated energy strategy will give New Zealand the direction, capacity, and confidence needed to make the transition both achievable and investable — powering prosperity and resilience for households, businesses, and the nation.
