Powering the Future: Proposed Infrastructure Reforms
Powering the Future: Proposed Infrastructure Reforms
Thursday 10 July, 2025
This article on the Government’s proposed amendments to existing national direction on renewable electricity generation, electricity transmission and telecommunication facilities is the second in a legal brief series addressing proposed changes to national direction under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). You can find the first article here. Specifically, the proposal makes changes to the:
- National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation 2011 (NPS-REG);
- National Policy Statement on Electricity Transmission 2008, which is proposed to be renamed the National Policy Statement for Electricity Networks (NPS-EN);
- National Environmental Standards for Electricity Transmission Activities, which is proposed to be renamed National Environmental Standards for Electricity Network Activities (NES-ENA); and
- National Environmental Standards for Telecommunication Facilities (NES-TF).
Purpose
The Government considers that the current resource management system is not permissive enough and does not place enough emphasis on renewable electricity generation, electricity networks and telecommunication facilities. The proposed amendments are intended to address these issues, enabling New Zealand’s energy and telecommunication needs to be met, including in emergency situations.
Key Features and Implications
The key features of the proposed amendments are:
- Introducing enabling objectives and supporting policies using stronger language (in line with the language that is now more common in the more recently created national directions);
- Protecting infrastructure; and
- Creating more permitted activities.
The Government anticipates that the proposed changes will make the rules contained within the National Environmental Standards clearer and more consistent. The proposed changes will also reduce the number of resource applications, leading to faster and cheaper developments, maintenance, and upgrades in the electricity sector.
Below is a discussion of some of the key amendments proposed.
Renewable Electricity Generation
A key proposed change to the NPS-REG is the introduction of new, and amendments to existing, policies to better enable and facilitate renewable energy generation and protect existing assets. An example of this is the proposed use of the directive ‘must recognise and provide for’ to decision-makers as opposed to the current wording of ‘shall have particular regard to’. The proposed changes also include clarifying the meaning of ‘operational need’ and ‘functional need’ through the introduction of new definitions and adding examples of operational and functional needs. The new definitions and amended policy refer to a need to be located in ‘particular environments’. Renewable energy generation activities may be consented if certain criteria are met, including:
- The renewable resource’s presence and availability at a viable scale;
- Accessibility to electricity networks, particularly Transpower’s National Grid, and electricity demand; and
- Sufficient accessible land being available to support the associated needs of the electricity generation activity.
Electricity Network
Proposed changes to the NPS-EN also aim to be more directive. Amendments to Policy 1 (National significance and benefits of the electricity network) seek to increase the significance placed on the benefits of electricity network activities. Amendments to Policy 10 (Managing the effects of third parties on the electricity network) place a higher importance on avoiding reverse sensitivity effects of other activities on the electricity network.
Electricity Network Activities and Telecommunication Facilities
The Government’s proposed changes to the NES-ENA and NES-TF increase the permitted activity thresholds for a range of activities, enabling providers to carry out more maintenance and upgrade works to the electricity and telecommunications networks. These changes aim to reduce the number of resource consents required by increasing the number of permitted activities and avoiding resource consent processes, thereby speeding up maintenance and upgrade processes and reducing costs.
New permitted activity rules are also proposed for district and unitary plans to enable the construction, maintenance and operation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
In terms of implementation, it is proposed to allow district plan rules to be more lenient, but not more stringent, than the NES-ENA and NES-TF in order to allow local authorities to keep existing rules which are more enabling for transmission, distribution, and communication providers.
Implications for Iwi/Māori
New policies are proposed to be introduced into the NPS-REG and NPS-EN directing decision makers to recognise and provide for Māori interests in relation to an activity requiring resource consent, notices of requirement and private plan changes (based on a similar policy in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development). This places additional requirements on applicants and decision makers to consider the outcome of engagement, recognise the opportunities for tangata whenua for partnership and/or participation and operate in a way that is consistent with legislation on iwi participation. However, it is noted that because the proposed changes to the NES-ENA and NES-TF will increase the number of permitted activities, there will be limited resource consent processes triggering the notification or involvement of tangata whenua. This will be the case even where the activity is located in specified special purpose zones, including in a Māori purpose zone.
Implementation
Because of the differences in how changes to National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards are implemented under the RMA, it is unlikely that the proposed changes will come into force simultaneously. However, the Government has signalled its intention to have all changes in place by the end of 2025.
Consultation on the changes proposed within Package 1 close on 27 July 2025. If you have any questions on amendments to national direction with regard to renewable electricity generation, electricity transmission and telecommunication facilities, or would like assistance with making a submission on the proposal, please contact one of our experts below.
