Te Kanapu
At its core, Te Kanapu is about ensuring the transmission network supports Aotearoa to thrive and grow as it electrifies.
In 2020, Transpower published Whakamana i Te Mauri Hiko, a paper that examined five possible scenarios for our country’s energy future. It set out the opportunity for Aotearoa to decarbonise our energy mix through electrification – switching the energy households and businesses use to renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. Whakamana i Te Mauri Hiko was also a call to action for policy makers and the energy sector to rise to the challenge of enabling electrification.
Te Kanapu follows on from Whakamana i Te Mauri Hiko, which, alongside Te Mauri Hiko (2018), Transmission Tomorrow (2023), Electrification Roadmap (2021), and Sustainability Strategy (2023) set out Transpower’s plans for developing the transmission system of the future – one in which electricity demand increases as the transport and process heat sectors are electrified and as new renewable generation is added to the system.
Five years on, as expected, our context has shifted. The Te Kanapu positioning paper describes the changed context for Transpower since Whakamana i te Mauri Hiko and introduces our new initiative to develop and deliver a “grid blueprint” for the future. When complete, the future grid blueprint will provide a guide for our transmission infrastructure investment to 2050 and beyond.
‘Kanapu’ means both ‘lightning’ and ‘bright’. Lightning as the raw form of electricity is a key symbol on the pou whakairo (carving) in the entrance hall at Waikoukou, Transpower’s head office. ‘Te Kanapu’ speaks about the electrification and illumination of our country and Transpower’s goals for a bright, energised future.
Future grid blueprint
The key focus of Te Kanapu is to deliver a future grid blueprint for Aotearoa.
Through a programme of research and wide engagement across industry and energy sector experts, we will build and publish a grid blueprint which will guide Transpower’s investments in the national electricity grid and the way we manage the electricity system. The grid blueprint we develop will make the case for what investments are needed to meet demand and unlock growth, and help us all plan across a longer time frame. The grid blueprint will also support industry and those in the energy sector with their long-term planning.
The grid blueprint will guide investments in national electricity transmission infrastructure up to and beyond 2050, supporting the country’s economic growth and net-zero aspirations.