The EEA seeks out the people closest to the sector’s biggest challenges and brings their work straight to our members, free of charge. This year’s series spans three sessions:
- Powerco’s work on AI-driven forecasting and grid-edge connections
- Horizon Networks’ trial of an AI-based climate resilience platform
- New international research on consumer trust and equity from the University of Notre Dame
It’s a chance to hear directly from the engineers, researchers, and innovators shaping where our industry is headed, well before the ideas reach the wider market.
These sessions will focus on how Aotearoa New Zealand’s electricity sector is adapting to a faster-changing, more decentralised future. Each session brings practical insight from people working at the front line of the industry’s biggest challenges, from AI-driven forecasting and climate resilience to the consumer side of the energy transition.
Timing: Each session runs 11am – 12pm on the dates shown below.
Registration: There is no charge to attend for EEA members, but registration is required.
July Session
Adapting for the future: Powerco’s developing digital capabilities in forecasting, DG connections & network management
When: Wednesday 22 July 2026, 11am-12pm
Presented by: Kewen Kueh, Mike Reid, Andrew Wilson and Bernie Coster from Powerco
Description: Consumer energy resources are creating big opportunities for New Zealand’s networks, alongside rising uncertainty about their impact and a growing need for capabilities customers can depend on.
The Powerco team shares progress across a range of initiatives: smart meter-driven load and generation forecasting with finer time and location detail, grid-edge control to fast-track connections against a 1,100 MW generation pipeline, and new approaches to LV network health and resilience planning.
Who should attend: Network planners, asset managers, forecasting and DSO specialists, and anyone working through the practicalities of connecting and managing distributed energy resources.
Use this link to register for 22nd July 2026 webinar
August session
Climate risk informed planning: An AI-Driven Platform Trial
When: Wednesday 19 August 2026, 11am-12pm
Presented by: Feng Wu and Johnathon Green from Horizon Networks
Description: Severe weather is testing electricity networks beyond what they were designed for. Traditional desktop-based risk assessment is struggling to keep up: it leans on limited asset and outage data, doesn’t scale well across the network, and takes heavy resourcing to test different scenarios.
Horizon Networks is now trialing Rhizome’s AI-based planning platform, gridADAPT, which applies machine learning to climate projections, asset vulnerability and network performance data to assess risk and weigh up the economic and consumer benefits of different investment options. Feng Wu and Johnathon Green will share how the platform works in practice, and what they’ve learned from the pilot so far.
Who should attend: Asset managers, network planners and risk managers, particularly those weighing up AI-supported tools for climate and asset risk.
Use this link to register for 19th August 2026 webinar
October session
Note: No September session due to EEA2026
Who Powers the Future? Consumer behaviour, pricing, and trust in Aotearoa New Zealand’s electricity transition
When: Tuesday 13 October 2026, 11am-12pm
Presented by: Baxter Kamana-Williams from the University of Notre Dame
Description: Decisions on pricing, distributed generation and demand-side management will shape who benefits, and who doesn’t, as New Zealand’s electricity system decentralises. This session looks at the often-overlooked consumer side of that equation.
Baxter Kamana-Williams presents new research across five key areas: behavioural dynamics, electricity pricing, distributed generation and storage, energy efficiency, and consumer trust. He’ll explore why demand-side management is more complex than it looks, how pricing and DG policy can advance or undermine equity, and why consumer trust is critical to whether energy policy succeeds.
Who should attend: Energy policy professionals, regulators, distribution network operators, demand-side management practitioners, and anyone interested in energy equity and the residential consumer experience.