A recent scan of demand flexibility projects underway both here and abroad has revealed that projects in Aotearoa have been strongly focused on identifying network management solutions.
However, there has been a notable lack of research into customer engagement and technology innovation.
FlexTalk has today published their ‘flexibility scan’, a summary of 98 flexibility projects underway and completed, across Aotearoa and internationally.
The scan provides a valuable resource for anyone with an interest in the integration of consumer energy resources and demand flexibility into the electricity system. It provides an overview of some of the projects underway around the world, what they are focussing on and what learnings are being shared.
Publications in the flexibility scan include:
- a searchable spreadsheet of projects separated into Aotearoa and international, outlining project objectives, deliverables and key learnings,
- a summary report that presents key findings and insights alongside takeaways for decision makers, and
- radar charts showing the different concentration of focus across the projects
The EEA is leading FlexTalk in partnership with industry and Te Tari Tiaki Pungao / the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA). FlexTalk is exploring how to better enable maximum participation in flexibility services.
The flexibility scan was funded by EECA and completed by EA Technology to support electricity distribution businesses, policy makers, researchers and participants as the sector transitions to clean energy.
EEA Chief Executive Nicki Sutherland says the scan sheds light on all the work underway as people seek to solve different parts of the same problem: how do our economies utilise consumer energy resources and demand flexibility to enable the energy transition?
“We see the flexibility scan as an opportunity to learn from others but more importantly, see where the gaps in our learning and research lie, where there may be duplication of effort, and if any critical component of flexibility is being forgotten.”
While most of the projects are ongoing, some completed projects have also been captured.
Database: Flexibility Projects in Aotearoa and Internationally 2025
Report: FlexTalk International Flexibility scan 2025
Form: add your project to the database
Who is focusing on what?
Each project was rated according to its degree of focus on four key categories:
- technology development and integration
- network management
- customer engagement
- market design and development.
Ratings were then used to produce radar charts showing the spread of focus across the projects.
This showed that while every project had more than one focus area, network management, and market design and development were the two most dominant overall.
This focus was even stronger across the New Zealand projects while customer engagement is underrepresented here.
Internationally, projects demonstrated more mature market design with a stronger focus on customer participation. Vehicle-to-grid studies also featured more heavily in international research.
Radar charts
These charts indicate the spread of project focus, across four areas: technology development, network management, customer engagement or market development.
Each project was rated on its level of delivery within these focus areas, with a total score of 10 points assigned. A project solely focused on network management, for example, would receive all 10 points in that category. Another project delivering outcomes across multiple areas might allocate points as follows: network management (4), customer engagement (4), and market development (2). The combined data from all projects was used to generate these graphs.
