About our work programme
EECA is supporting the development and uptake of end-use products that are capable of using electricity flexibly, across the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.
This work links to wider policy decisions and regulatory changes that are progressing across government to encourage the uptake of smart, flexible technology – benefiting consumers and New Zealand’s energy system.
The benefits of demand flexibility in end-use products
Flexible electricity use has the potential to fundamentally improve how New Zealanders use electricity, both at home and at work. If households and businesses can use technology and appliances that allow them to be smart and flexible about their energy use, it could mean lower electricity bills for households and help make New Zealand’s electricity system more resilient and affordable.
Examples of residential products that could operate in a flexible way in homes include EV chargers, heat pumps and electric water heaters (including heat pump water heaters).
Many commercial and industrial applications can also use electricity flexibly.
Our role in supporting flexible electricity use
EECA is taking steps to make a more affordable, flexible future a reality, in consultation with industry. We are developing voluntary specifications for home appliances and technology, and continue to collaborate with Australia to promote consistency of specifications between our countries on technology such as solar panels and EV chargers.
Although we’re starting with residential products due to their standardised nature, we will look at approaches to commercial and industrial products next.
EECA’s work is happening alongside other government organisations (including the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, the Electricity Authority and the Commerce Commission) that are actively coordinating on flexible electricity use because we share an expectation that flexibility will be enabled, at scale.
Potential policy changes
The government has signaled potential changes to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, which will enable us to further support and develop a competitive market for flexible electricity use that lowers costs for electricity users.
This change would include regulation beyond energy efficiency and into enabling flexibility in technology and systems.
Unlocking the potential of demand flexibility - a residential product perspective
EECA consulted on a green paper at the end of 2025 which supported this ongoing work. In early 2026, we published the summary of submissions and next steps to follow this work.
Our approach to future work
Moving forward, our approach is to:
- Develop a set of key components for demand flexibility. These include communication protocols, product response and operational information, and cyber security (following feedback).
- Develop principles to guide the development of the key components:
- consumer maintains control
- data privacy
- fail-safe operation
- key use-cases need to be considered
- demand flexibility over demand response.
- Take a functionality, or outcomes-focused, approach to enable innovative solutions, and develop compliance pathways alongside – making it easy to understand and comply.
Next steps
EECA will now develop voluntary specifications in the form of frameworks and compliance pathways for key products, prioritising residential heat pumps, hot water systems, EV chargers, inverters, and home energy management systems (HEMS).
These frameworks will specify the outcome requirements, rather than the pathway to meet them. Alongside these, there will be compliance pathways that demonstrate how to meet the framework, but these are voluntary and other pathways can be used. This enables innovation in meeting the requirements, while achieving a consistent outcome.
We will set up working groups for each product to develop the frameworks and compliance pathways, starting with air conditioning/heat pumps and hot water systems.
Continue reading
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Demand flexibility — a smarter grid
Learn about how effective demand management supports a more efficient and affordable electricity system.
- Electricity
- Renewable energy
- Smart technology
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Unlocking the potential of demand flexibility in homes
EECA invited feedback on a green paper about unlocking the potential of demand flexibility through residential end-use products. This input informed our ongoing thinking on the key issues and our role in addressing them.
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Equipment Energy Efficiency Programme (E3)
New Zealand and Australia work together to regulate the energy efficiency of products under the E3 programme. The Regulations cover products for home, commercial and industrial use.