We’re investing for tomorrow, today
The decisions we make about our electricity network now will shape the lives of people who live and work in Central Waitaha Canterbury for decades to come. The way our network has been shaped by the past, and the challenges we now face, mean we need to invest differently in both the network and how we operate it.
The Canterbury earthquakes of 2010–11 shaped how we invested in the network. Significant investment was needed to repair and rebuild the network and support the region’s recovery. To help keep electricity prices down, some lower priority maintenance and asset renewal was delayed. After the rebuild, strong population and development growth meant investment shifted toward expanding the network to support new homes and businesses. This resulted in a backlog of renewal work.
Today, our network is becoming more complex to manage, and customer expectations are changing. Orion continues to face seismic risk, alongside more frequent and severe weather linked to climate change. Recent events have increased expectations for a network that is more resilient and better able to withstand disruption.
Population growth and electricity demand are also increasing across parts of our network. Ongoing investment is needed to strengthen and expand the network so it can keep up with growth and changing needs.
At the same time, the move to a low-carbon energy system is changing how electricity is used and managed. More customers are using technologies like solar and batteries, which adds complexity to how the network operates. Managing this change requires modern systems and stronger organisational capability to plan and run the network safely and efficiently.
You can find out more about the challenges we face in our CPP Main Proposal [PDF, 6.9 MB].
What is a customised price-quality path?
The Commerce Commission regulates the revenue we can earn from lines charges, and the service quality we provide, through a default price-quality path.
Our current circumstances mean that this path does not provide sufficient revenue to fund the investment our network and customers need, and to maintain the service levels our community expect.
A customised price-quality path allows electricity distributors, like Orion, to apply to the Commerce Commission for different revenue limits to meet the specific needs of their customers and network.
We’ve applied for a customised path for the five-year period from 01 April 2027 to 31 March 2032, which covers the 2028 to 2032 financial years. The Commerce Commission will now undertake a thorough evaluation of our application before making a final decision on our investment plan.
You can visit the Commerce Commission’s website(external link) for more information on this process.
Our investment plan
Over the five-year CPP period, we propose to invest a total of $1.51 billion, comprising $932 million in capital expenditure and $578 million in operating expenditure. This level of investment is around $260 million above our allowances under the current default price-quality path (DPP4) and expected DPP5 levels. Note, the Commerce Commission will determine our final investment plan after evaluating our CPP application.
Our capital expenditure focuses on increased asset renewals, targeted resilience programmes, and network upgrades to keep pace with forecast growth in population and peak demand. The increase in operating expenditure will support increased maintenance activity, expanded vegetation management, and enhanced capability to manage a more complex and dynamic electricity network.
These investments are focused on maintaining service levels while positioning the network to meet future needs.
You can find out more about our CPP investment plan in our 2026 Asset Management Plan [PDF, 18 MB] and CPP Main Proposal [PDF, 6.9 MB].
What this means for customers
The benefits you can expect from increased investment include sustained levels of safety and reliability, a more resilient network, increased network capacity to support growth, and a network that is future-fit and continues to support the decarbonisation of our region.
A customised price-quality path will mean an increase in lines charges. As your electricity bill reflects the cost of all parts of the electricity supply chain, and electricity retailers determine how lines charges are included in your bill, we cannot accurately forecast total customer bills as a result of our investment plan. However, we expect that the lines charge increase for typical residential or small business customers will be on average around $4 per month higher under a customised price-quality path.
You can find out more about the challenges we face in our CPP Main Proposal [PDF, 6.9 MB].
What our customers told us
Between April 2024 and August 2026, we’ve engaged with you, our customers, stakeholders and community to ensure that our investment plan meets your needs and priorities. You’ve clearly and consistently told us that you expect a safe, reliable and resilient network, that can keep up with growth and is future fit. You also told us that affordability was a key concern and that investment should be prudent, efficient and clearly justified.
Customer and stakeholder feedback has directly influenced our investment plan, including changes to scope, timing and investment trade-offs that reduced overall investment while maintaining focus on the safe, reliable and resilient network you value.
You can find out more about our customer engagement in the Engagement Report [PDF, 7.1 MB].
Next steps
We submitted our CPP application to the Commerce Commission on 9 June 2026. They will now thoroughly review and assess our application and seek further customer and stakeholder feedback. In setting our customised price-quality path, the Commission will decide whether the investment plan we outlined in our application is prudent, efficient and in the best interests of customers. The customised path they set, may differ from our application. The path the Commission sets will determine the revenue we can earn over the five-year CPP period, and customers will see this reflected in their power bill from 01 April 2027.
Find out more
You can find out more about the process we went through to develop our CPP application on Orion Have your Say(external link).
If you would like more information about our CPP application, please email us.