![\"Roina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/roina-graham-and-ruka-te-moana-said-owae-was-surprised-by-bi-D7CGRNKPBRAANDKK3T6H2GTCWI.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWaitara\u2019s \u014cwae Marae is warning others to be wary when converting to solar energy after an over-engineered installation led to an electricity bill blowout.<\/p>\n
By Craig Ashworth of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
Poor advice and industry assumptions made the solar installation on \u014cwae\u2019s new wharekai in Taranaki unnecessarily expensive, said Manukorihi P\u0101 Trust secretary Roina Graham.<\/p>\n
The sobering caution was given at He Ahi K\u0101, He Ao Hou, a community-focused conference leading into the Aotearoa Energy Summit in New Plymouth this week.<\/p>\n
Graham said the p\u0101 had hoped to save money with solar, but instead monthly bills had risen from $400 to as much as $2000.<\/p>\n
Trustees called in local renewable energy experts to assess the system.<\/p>\n
They found an expensive 300kVA transformer with excessive capacity had been installed.<\/p>\n
Graham said that size of transformer would usually serve 70 houses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would you install that on the marae, attached to the kitchen?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know. I’m still dumbfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
The marae also had its fixed lines charge bumped up to a pricier level, as the high peak of electricity use during events like tangihanga meant it was regarded as a business.<\/p>\n
\u014cwae was charged that business-rate lines charge despite sitting dormant most days \u2013 unlike a typical business.<\/p>\n
Business lines charge, over-specified transformer<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Roina Graham and Ruka Te Moana said \u014cwae was surprised by big bills after the solar install. (Source: Te Korimako o Taranaki) (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
The installer HEL Rimu Electrical said the project\u2019s external engineer specified the large transformer.<\/p>\n
Managing director Callum Margetts said the capacity was intended to serve potential new housing or other future buildings on the p\u0101.<\/p>\n
“What’s not explained \u2013 and we see this a lot \u2013 is the actual line charges that come with having a large transformer like that,” Margetts said.<\/p>\n
“I’m talking about your monthly ongoing costs of having the capability to have that energy provided to a site.”<\/p>\n
On top of that \u014cwae had no contract to sell power back to the grid, so the marae\u2019s electricity retailer simply took the excess solar generation without payment for three years.<\/p>\n
Eventually the retail supplier refunded the lost earnings for taking the excess power \u2013 but the business lines charge and over-specified transformer remain.<\/p>\n
Finally, when any solar panel on the wharekai roof was shaded the entire array connected to it would also quit generating.<\/p>\n
Graham said marae trustees or administrators needed to fully understand every aspect of planned solar installations and must keep a close eye on the rollout.<\/p>\n
“You need that knowledge on how things work within your own marae.”<\/p>\n
Not an ‘isolated incident’<\/p>\n
Ruka Te Moana of renewable-energy company Te Piringa P\u016bngao was one of the experts called in to figure out what went wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn’t an isolated incident,\u201d he told the conference.<\/p>\n
He advised other marae to be cautious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got awesome organisations like Rewiring Aotearoa, Solar Sense and T\u016b Mai Ra Energy that are going around helping wh\u0101nau [to avoid] unintended consequences, stuff like this happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Te Moana said that wasn’t enough and systemic change was needed to bring fair charging options for marae.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re educating our wh\u0101nau to operate in a space that isn’t changing: the space actually needs to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te Moana said funding bodies increasingly demanded feasibility studies for solar projects, to avoid the need for remedial work.<\/p>\n
\u014cwae was working out how to avoid the worst impacts through measures like making sure batteries handle the brunt of peak power demand.<\/p>\n
Going off-grid was being considered and might end up the best option.<\/p>\n
Te Moana said the new Ng\u0101motu Marae being built in New Plymouth could learn lessons from \u014cwae\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n
\u2013 LDR is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ on Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waitara\u2019s \u014cwae Marae is warning others to be wary when converting to solar energy after an over-engineered installation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1667,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-630101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-energy","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}