Welcome to WE Share (Waiheke Energy Share)

What is WE Share?

In the simplest of words, WE Share (Waiheke Energy Share) stands for generating power within the local WE Share community to consume any excess power within that community – sharing by donating or selling.

In 2022, the WE Share concept was launched at the Waiheke Energy Resilience Symposium at the Morra Hall. The WE Share pilot project got off the ground and thanks to our pioneers embarking with us on this exciting journey it is now a reality with a growing community of power sharers.

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Waiheke Energy Share (WE Share) is a grassroots community group whose intention is to plant the seed to develop a community owned and operated energy company based upon renewable generation. Leading by example, WE Share has partnered with energy retailer Our Energy https://www.ourenergy.co.nz/join (Scroll down to find Waiheke Energy Share) who provides the community with the ability to power share their solar generation both tracking its destination use and the ability to sell excess generation to family and friends as well as purchase from other members at an inexpensive rate. There is also a ‘gifting’ option for those solar generation systems who wish to support other families, community organisations or favourite charity. For more information on Our Energy: https://www.ourenergy.co.nz

Latest WE Share News

  • Source: Gulf News – June 27, 2024 With power price increases once again on the horizon, a Waiheke solar energy shar­ing network is on a recruitment drive. Waiheke Energy Share, or WE Share, started as a grassroots community pro­ject aiming to reduce the island’s carbon......

Energy Alternatives is proud to be a supporter of this exciting initiative and has specifically sourced a wide range of products which are fit for purpose for Waiheke (and all) homes. There are lower investment ‘starter’ solar packages for smaller household users up to the state-of-the-art FoxESS All-In-One inverter / 10.4kW battery storage system which can deliver up to 6kW continuous and can handle 7.5kWp of solar panels. All FoxESS products are offered scalable thus allowing customers to add to their system as budget allows.

Fill your cart with a solar system & battery pack at sponsored WE Share prices.

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FAQ (WE Share – Our Energy) – Pilot

Q. Can a “producer” share their excess power with more than one other participant, i.e. selling or donating to two different “consumers”?

Yes, a participant of the pilot can share their excess power with more than one other participant, i.e. selling it to 2 different other ICPs/”consumers” – this is a core part of what Our Energy’s software allows.

Q. How would that work if there could be more than one consumer linked to one producer?

For any given 30-minute period, our system looks first for the greatest amount of demand to match supply with. This process runs over and over again until as much supply as possible has been matched. Only once that process is complete then, if there is still more demand than available supply, our system goes to the grid / market to provide the remainder. In other words, our system prioritises the matching off of local production and local consumption.

Q. How does the distribution work if a producer has more than one consumer on the other side?

For any given 30-minute period, our system looks first for the greatest amount of demand to match supply with. This process runs over and over again until as much supply as possible has been matched. Only once that process is complete then, if there is still more demand than available supply, our system goes to the grid / market to provide the remainder. In other words, our system prioritises the matching off of local production and local consumption.

Q. Does a participant of the pilot need a smart meter?

Our systems require a smart meter to work. The sharing / matching transactions can’t happen without one so this is needed to be part of WE Share. If we have an ICP number, we can check in market registry about the status/setup of a particular meter.

Q. As you will be aware two requirements for joining the WE share pilot on Waiheke Island are firstly that we sign up to our energy and that we convince someone else to join so that we can sell or gift them power. In order to do that I would need to convince them that they would not be worse off than with the provider that they are presently with. On your web site I am not able to see what your charges would be. Neither for a daily rate nor a rate /kWh. Are you able to provide me with these figures?

Thanks Tony. We can now confirm for you that both of these ICPs are on what is known as a ‘controlled’ network tariff with Vector. This essentially means that Vector has access to control the hot water supply at these properties for its network management purposes. This is in exchange for an overall lower variable network charge. Summary as follows:

Electricity (estimated average of spot & local) – $0.12 per kWh
Low user network daily charge – $0.30/day
Low user network use charge – $0.0842/kWh
Metering daily charge – $0.15/day
EA levy – $0.0013/kWh
Our Energy (WE Share) low user subscription fee – $2/week

If and when you joined, an option would be to change you both over to a time-of-use, controlled network tariff. This would mean that instead of paying $0.0842/kWh 24/7/365 for your network use charges, you could instead pay $0.0603 in off-peak times and $0.1378 (Mon – Fri, 7am-11am and 5pm-9pm) in peak times. That could work out quite well for you both if you do have the ability to limit the amount of other power except for hot water that you use in those peak periods (potentially up to $50/year). Further, ICP 0405788061LC46A could save $0.12/kWh on any units that were gifted to them too.

Hope this helps. We’re happy to run a direct bill comparison if that’d be helpful and you can send us a recent one from your current provider(s).

Q. How is the set up for the distribution of the excess power? Priorities? Queues? Equal shares? Agreed shares?

Our system takes a ‘community’ view of local supply and local demand for any given half-hourly period and does the matching on an equitable basis with a view to matching as much local supply with local demand as possible. In your simplified example with 1 producer and 3 purchasers, let’s assume:

  • 5kWh of excess produced by Producer A
  • 4kWh consumed by Purchaser B
  • 3kWh consumed by Purchaser C
  • 2kWh consumed by Purchaser D

Overall, then, we have 5kWh of local supply and 9kWh of local demand. Each purchaser has a % of the local demand and therefore gets allocated an equitable proportion of local supply in accordance with their share of demand. This matching process occurs automatically – neither the purchaser nor the producer has to do anything. The remaining 4kWh of demand that cannot be supplied locally must be purchased from the grid / wholesale market. Reality is obviously significantly more complex, but the basic principles here hold across all scenarios.

However, our system also allows a producer to ‘reserve’ a % of their excess to gift to specific members in their community for 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks (it’s on our roadmap in the coming months to add a permanent / set & forget option here too). Using the above simplified example again, let’s say that Producer A reserved up to 25% of their excess for Recipient E. Then, assuming

Recipient E’s demand allows, 1.25kWh would be gifted to them by Producer A. And this would leave 3.75kWh to be shared out across Purchasers B, C & D.

Q. How does the consumer get power if there is a power outage? Will there still be power supply from the producer to the consumer?

No, there won’t be power supply from the producer (Our Energy) to the consumer if there is a power outage. WE Share (via Our Energy) relies on use of the same network (i.e., Vector) as everyone else – power outages can therefore still occur.

Note: The hybrid solar systems provided by Energy Alternatives have the option for energy storage (batteries) which provide back up power when the grid is down.

Q. How does the consumer get power if there is a power outage? Will there still be power supply from the producer to the consumer?

No, there won’t be power supply from the producer (Our Energy) to the consumer if there is a power outage. WE Share (via Our Energy) relies on use of the same network (i.e., Vector) as everyone else – power outages can therefore still occur.

Note: The hybrid solar systems provided by Energy Alternatives have the option for energy storage (batteries) which provide back up power when the grid is down.

Q. How does the ``direct`` power supply from producer to consumer work?

This is done through a matching of supply and demand between producer and consumer. It’s based on data from producers and consumers meters – no one can directly or physically supply someone else.

Q. At what point do you share your power - once the batteries are fully charged and then the excess energy goes to the consumer?

That’s correct – the sharing of power is all based off what excess is being produced at different times of day.

Q. What does the battery setting 40/60 mean? How does that impact consumption, excess power?

As part of the WE Share pilot, the battery control system is set so that 60% of the total capacity is reserved as back-up power in case of grid failure. 40% of the capacity is used for the home to reduce purchasing from the grid (if required) daily to support the home energy needs when the solar system is not producing power. (at night time and cloudy days)

Q. Why is the setting for the batteries 40/60 = 40 to use, 60 to store for EPS?

The FoxESS hybrid All-in-One solar system, (with 4 batteries) has a capacity of 10.2kWh in total. Reserving 60% allows 6kWh or back up power for your home to run your critical circuits when there is grid failure. 40% is used daily in the evenings. The solar system will charge the batteries each day (40%) and then export the ‘extra’ power to your designated recipient. (Gifted / sold / family / friend / community organisation)

Q. Are you buying excess Power at 12 Cents/kWh from everybody joining Our Energy as a retailer?

Generally, yes, 12 cents/kWh is our local energy trading rate (i.e., we only pay this rate where energy is matched locally, otherwise we pay the wholesale price at the time).

However, we do have one project where the local energy rate is set at 6 cents/kWh – that one involves marae, who are more motivated by sharing / passing on the benefits of the excess they are producing to others in their community rather than keeping the value to themselves. This community also ‘pools’ the value of any excess that is not matched locally, so that they can redistribute later.

So, in theory (and in practice as per above example), we can set the local energy trading rate differently for different communities. The key is that buyers and sellers agree with us on what this rate is in advance as systems and market processes are not yet sophisticated enough to have these prices change on a real-time / dynamic basis. Plus, it’s not clear that people want the latter anyway.

Q. If I do not have a smart meter but want to become a solar producer do I need a smart meter first before I change over to Our Energy?

Yes, that is correct – our software, operations and billing systems are only set up to receive and accept data from smart meters.

Q. Don't I need a DG meter anyway to be able to feed from and back into the grid so regardless what I am on at the moment I change over to Our Energy and you will organise for the DG meter to be installed on my site.

That is also correct – the issue here for us is that there is usually (always) a time lag between when the DG meter gets installed and when a customer might join us. So, a customer also needs to have a communicating smart meter right from the time they first switch across to us.

Q. As a consumer you only need a smart meter to receive power through the lines regardless if it comes from the power company or my solar producer under the pilot, correct?

That’s also right. As above, our software, operations and billing systems are only set up to receive and accept data from smart meters, regardless of whether you have solar or not.

In order to make Solar Energy more accessible to the Waiheke Community, WE Share offers sponsorship of solar systems for those who wish to join WE Share and become part of the Waiheke Solar Community.