As part of the work done over the past two years on options to meet electricity growth in the Queens-town region, a report by ANSA, which provides modelling and insights for the grid connection of EVs, solar power and other low carbon technology, found about 6000 households here need to install 5kWhs of solar and about 25kWhs of battery storage per household, in short order, to defer the proposed new line by two to four years.
That, the report finds, is ‘‘well beyond the practical/realistic per household installation size’’.
Transpower’s grid development executive general manager Matt Webb says it’s ‘‘a very ambitious target’’.
That’s in part due to the number of households that would need to be connected each week, the cost of the kit, and the way it needs to be operated.
For there to be any deferral by Transpower, those things would all need to come together ahead of any planned construction periods.
‘‘It’s quite a significant undertaking.
‘‘We need more power . . . to achieve Queenstown’s growth ambitions, so we need to investigate both [solar and electricity],’’ he says.
