Source
https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/r/vvb0r — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Electricity Authority EMI regional residential consumption (16 NZ regions, YE 31/12/2025)
Reference dataset — official EA EMI export
Electricity Authority EMI “Residential consumption league table” (www.emi.ea.govt.nz, run 2026-05-31). Average annual residential electricity consumption per connection (ICP) by regional council, year ended 31 December 2025, with prior-year + rank columns. Per-connection regional average — not per-household/occupant, no ICP counts in file (not re-weightable to a national mean), no distribution data, two years only; the “residential” definition and solar net/gross-metering treatment are not stated in the file.
Summary
The Electricity Authority EMI “Residential consumption league table” — average annual residential electricity consumption per connection (ICP), in kWh, for each of New Zealand’s 16 regional councils, for the year ended 31 December 2025, with prior-year comparison and league-table rank columns. It is the official, authoritative NZ regional residential demand baseline for the NI energy model (② electricity demand). The highest-consuming region is Southland at 8,131 kWh/yr and the lowest is West Coast at 5,745 kWh/yr; Tasman — the Neobiome worked-example region — sits at 7,233 kWh/yr (rank 4 of 16). Resolves RT_094 and RT_139; feeds D01. RD_016
Key claims
- claim: "Dataset = EA EMI 'Residential consumption league table' (www.emi.ea.govt.nz, run 20260531191805); parameters Year=2025, Region type=Regional council, Show=Average consumption; 16 regional-council rows, each year ended 31/12/2025. Values are average annual residential consumption in kWh per connection (ICP)."
source_location: "Header + Parameters block (rows 1–9); column header (row 11); data rows 12–27"
- claim: "National range: Southland highest at 8,130.89 kWh/yr (rank 1); West Coast lowest at 5,744.94 kWh/yr (rank 16); spread 2,385.95 kWh/yr — the top region uses ~41.5% more per connection than the bottom."
source_location: "Rows 12 (Southland) and 27 (West Coast), 'Average consumption (kWh)' + 'Region rank'"
- claim: "The four highest-consuming regions are all South Island: Southland 8,130.89 (rank 1), Canterbury 8,045.82 (rank 2), Otago 7,837.44 (rank 3), Tasman 7,233.36 (rank 4) — higher consumption tracks colder winters and greater electric space/water heating."
source_location: "Rows 12–15, 'Average consumption (kWh)' + 'Region rank'"
- claim: "Tasman (NI worked-example region): 7,233.36 kWh/yr current; 7,286.28 prior year; change −52.92 kWh (−0.73%); region rank 4 of 16, unchanged year-on-year."
source_location: "Row 15, all consumption/rank columns"
- claim: "Consumption fell in 15 of 16 regions year-on-year; only Bay of Plenty rose (+21.08 kWh, +0.31%). Largest absolute decline Southland −245.74 kWh; largest percentage decline Gisborne −3.36%; most regions −0.7% to −3.0%."
source_location: "Row 18 (Bay of Plenty); row 12 (Southland); row 23 (Gisborne); change columns rows 12–27"
- claim: "Auckland (largest-population region) residential consumption = 6,813.83 kWh/yr, rank 9 of 16 (down from 6, −3), −2.44% year-on-year — a per-connection figure, so population is not embedded in the value."
source_location: "Row 20, consumption + rank + percentage-change columns"
- claim: "Caveats: average per connection (ICP) by regional council — not total, per-capita, or per-occupant; no ICP counts in file (not re-weightable to a national mean); no distribution/standard error; two years only; the 'residential' definition and solar self-consumption (net vs gross metering) treatment are not stated in the file; the Tasman figure is region-wide, not Lower Moutere-specific."
source_location: "Whole file — absence of count/SE/time-series columns; Parameters block states only Year/Region type/Show"Regional residential consumption — model data (② electricity demand)
Average residential consumption (kWh/yr per connection), year ended 31/12/2025, from RD_016:
| Rank | Region | kWh/yr | YoY % | Rank | Region | kWh/yr | YoY % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southland | 8,131 | −2.93 | 9 | Auckland | 6,814 | −2.44 |
| 2 | Canterbury | 8,046 | −1.83 | 10 | Nelson | 6,773 | −1.98 |
| 3 | Otago | 7,837 | −2.80 | 11 | Waikato | 6,729 | −2.11 |
| 4 | Tasman | 7,233 | −0.73 | 12 | Gisborne | 6,515 | −3.36 |
| 5 | Hawke’s Bay | 6,928 | −2.96 | 13 | Manawatū-Whanganui | 6,363 | −0.68 |
| 6 | Wellington | 6,877 | −1.17 | 14 | Northland | 6,138 | −1.34 |
| 7 | Bay of Plenty | 6,866 | +0.31 | 15 | Taranaki | 6,120 | −0.32 |
| 8 | Marlborough | 6,820 | −0.91 | 16 | West Coast | 5,745 | −2.95 |
Neobiome Intelligence relevance
Regional residential demand baseline (feeds D01). This supplies the official NZ regional residential electricity demand the NI generation/storage sizing needs as its load anchor (② electricity demand). For the Tasman/Lower Moutere worked example the regional-council baseline is 7,233 kWh/yr per connection (rank 4 of 16); the full national league gives a region-localisation set for the same demand model applied anywhere in NZ. It is the official primary behind CR_009’s regional figure (CR_009 used the year-ended-2024 Tasman value ~7,295; this is the updated 2025 release), and it pairs with RD_008, which explains the cold-region heating driver behind the South Island skew. RD_016
Demand is region-dependent, and flat-to-declining. The ~41.5% top-to-bottom spread shows “household energy need” is not a single national constant — the NI demand model must localise to region. Consumption fell in 15 of 16 regions year-on-year (only Bay of Plenty rose), suggesting a flat-to-declining residential trend rather than growth, relevant to forward sizing. RD_016
Boundary discipline. Because the figure is a per-connection regional average with no ICP counts, no occupancy adjustment, and no distribution data, NI must treat it as a regional central estimate — not a dwelling-specific or household-size-adjusted design figure — and must not derive a national mean from these 16 regional averages without external ICP weights. Whether the value nets on-site solar (grid-import) or is total household demand is not stated in the file and matters for any self-sufficiency calculation. RD_016
Research targets
Documents to retrieve
- EMI methodology / metadata page for the residential consumption league table — to confirm the precise definition of a “residential” connection and the treatment of solar self-consumption (net vs gross metering). Material to whether the figure is grid-import or total demand. (Metadata confirmation, not a new central RT.)
Research gaps
- No ICP (connection) counts in the file — the per-connection regional averages cannot be re-weighted into a national mean or converted to total regional energy without external ICP-count data.
- Two years only — no multi-year series, so the observed ~0.7–3.0% decline is a single year-on-year movement, not an established trend.
- Unit-boundary reconciliation — connection (ICP) vs household vs dwelling vs occupant across RD_016, CR_009, and the Lower Moutere worked example; NI must fix one consistent demand unit.
Connections
Links to
Referenced by
EDT domains (1): D01: Renewable Energy & Storage Systems