Source
https://www.pwc.co.nz/assets/2024-assets/pwc-nz-electricity-compendium-2024.pdf — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Summary
The PwC Electricity Line Business 2024 Information Disclosure Compendium consolidates the Commerce Commission’s Part 4 information-disclosure filings for all 29 New Zealand electricity distribution businesses (EDBs) into one comparative dataset. For each distributor it reports network characteristics (circuit length, connections, energy delivered, transformer capacity), service-intensity ratios, reliability (SAIDI/SAIFI), and financial measures (line-charge revenue, opex, capex, closing regulatory asset base). It is the closest thing NZ publishes to a comparative study of distribution-network cost and scale across the whole sector, which is why it was retrieved to corroborate the model’s grid-extension cost figure.
Key claims
See key_claims frontmatter (4 claims, cited to the compendium’s network-characteristics and financial-measures tables). All figures are audited Commerce Commission information-disclosure data for disclosure year 2024.
Neobiome Intelligence relevance
This source is a cross-check on grid_extension_cost (~$100,000/km), not a new primary value. The useful derived metric is regulatory asset base per circuit-km, computed from disclosed RAB and circuit length:
- Industry-wide: 17,147,957 / 159,163 = ~$107,700 per circuit-km OT_224
- Network Tasman (rural pilot region): 225,439 / 3,733 = ~$60,400 per circuit-km OT_224
- Powerco (large provincial/rural): 2,796,870 / 29,202 = ~$95,800 per circuit-km OT_224
- Orion (mixed Christchurch urban/rural): 1,566,054 / 11,992 = ~$130,600 per circuit-km OT_224
So the sector’s disclosed asset intensity runs ~60k/km (low-density rural) to ~131k/km (denser networks), industry mean ~108k/km. This **brackets the model's derived ~100,000/km rural line-extension estimate** (from EA unit rates, CR_037) as an order-of-magnitude cross-check.
⚠ Caveat (why it corroborates rather than replaces): RAB per km is the depreciated regulatory value of all network assets (lines, transformers, zone substations) averaged over circuit length, not the marginal cost to build one new km of overhead line. New greenfield rural 3-phase overhead sits at or above the depreciated RAB/km, so a ~$100k/km build estimate is consistent with, and slightly above, the rural end of disclosed asset intensity.
⚠ The disclosed annual capex intensity (8,600/km/yr industry-wide; ~600/connection/yr) is annual reinvestment-plus-growth spend, not a one-off build or connection cost, so it does not firm grid_connection_fixed (
Research targets
No new research targets. This source corroborates the order of magnitude of grid_extension_cost; the point value stays derived from EA unit rates (CR_037).
Connections
Links to
Sources (1): CR_037
Referenced by
EDT domains (1): D01: Renewable Energy & Storage Systems