Developing a future grid blueprint for Aotearoa
When you think of 2050, what does your local economy look like? New technology helping to take primary industries to the next level? Sustainable aviation fuel powering our tourism industry? A high-tech economy exporting New Zealand-built software to the world?
Whatever the future brings, electricity will be at its heart.
At Transpower, we’re responsible for getting electricity around the country. Through our Te Kanapu initiative, we’re developing a future grid blueprint – a guide for what our national grid will need to look like in 2050 to help drive economic growth and the path to net zero.
To build this future grid blueprint, we’re working collaboratively with others right across the country – businesses, iwi and hapū, and communities.
The future grid blueprint isn’t just about how we move electricity – it’s about how we can use electricity to support everyone in this country to grow and thrive.
Read more about the background and context for Te Kanapu - the future grid blueprint
Imagining Aotearoa in 2050
Since July 2025, we’ve been asking individuals and organisations about the future of Aotearoa – what will 2050 look like, what new and existing industries are likely to drive the economy and what are their priorities for the electricity system.
Read about Imagining Aotearoa in 2050
Tell us what you think Aotearoa in 2050 will look like
Testing potential scenarios
Building from what we heard in Imagining Aotearoa in 2050, we developed five potential scenarios describing what Aotearoa’s economy might look like in 2050 and what that would mean for electricity demand. Each scenario also includes a description of the likely generation mix in 2050 under those settings. The scenarios were open for public consultation in October 2025.
Read about our potential scenarios
Defining our technical approach
We published a suite of documents outlining the technical approach we will use to create the future grid blueprint in December 2025. These documents outline how we will take the electricity demand projections from our potential scenarios, run them through power system and economic modelling and use the results to understand what changes are needed to grid infrastructure in each scenario. We will then look for the changes common to most or all scenarios to prioritise work on those.
Read about our technical approach, including detailed documents
Sharing our future direction
In February 2026 we plan to publish finalised future scenarios, incorporating the feedback we received through consultation and engagement on our draft potential scenarios in 2025. This future direction will also include details of the likely mix of electricity generation sources needed for each scenario.
The draft grid blueprint
Later in 2026 we will publish a draft grid blueprint, combining all insights and research from the programme to date. This draft will be open for formal consultation so stakeholders can share their views, helping us to refine the blueprint before we finalise it.
Te Kanapu Future Grid Blueprint for Aotearoa
In late 2026, following the consultation, we will finalise and publish our first future grid blueprint.
Keep in touch
We’d love to hear from you and are happy to arrange meetings to discuss the future grid blueprint and hear your views.