Electrifying New Zealand is great - but no workforce means no power

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Alexandra Vranyac-Wheeler is the chief executive of Master Electricians New Zealand.

OPINION: Electrification is firming up as an election issue. Recent election promises: National’s low-interest loans for household solar, Labour’s SolarSaver policy removing the upfront cost of solar and battery installation, and the proposal to restore the Apprenticeship Boost to two years, are steps in the right direction. More support is the right instinct, but the next government must address a systemic workforce training problem, not just the cost of the technology.

Electrification is the next operating system of the New Zealand economy. It will power growth, productivity and resilience, but only if the workforce exists to deliver it safely and at pace. New Zealand is 6,000 electricians short, and new entrant numbers were around 1,260 in 2025. Skills planning is as important as substations and transmission lines, and the energy transition will not wait.

The trade itself has changed. Electricians are moving from spark to system, working across multiple industries, and the skills system has to evolve with the work. The workforce we need right now is not just new apprentices. It is the qualified electricians already in the trade who need fast, practical upskilling into solar, batteries and EV technology, delivered in months, not years.

Employers must be at the centre of the solution, and that will not happen under current settings or by simply adding a year to the subsidy. A first-year electrical apprentice costs an employer $58,843 in wages alone. The Apprenticeship Boost covers $6,000 of that. Restoring the boost to two years adds another $6,000, against a year-two wage cost of $62,650. That does not move the decision that matters: whether to take someone on, and it does not close the gap between what an apprentice costs and what a small electrical contractor can bill out while they learn.

Among electrical contractors, 78% expect renewable installations to increase, yet only 10% feel adequately skilled for the work (EECA’s December 2024 survey). Labour’s SolarSaver policy illustrates the point precisely. Removing the upfront cost of solar and battery installation will accelerate demand, which is welcome, but the policy allocates just $4 million of its $160 million budget to workforce development. The bottleneck is not demand. It is the capacity to install, connect and inspect the work that demand creates. The same applies to plug-in solar and vehicle-to-grid technology: worthwhile innovations that will only work safely if the standards and the workforce keep pace with them.

The bigger opportunity is distributed energy storage. Solar batteries, smart energy management systems, and EVs (electric vehicle) or PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) with approved bidirectional charging capability should be treated as part of the country’s energy resilience infrastructure. An EV or PHEV with bidirectional charging can operate as a mobile battery, supporting household resilience, reducing peak demand, helping consumers get more value from renewable generation and supporting future grid flexibility.

That means government subsidy and finance settings should extend beyond rooftop and include approved battery storage, smart chargers, bidirectional chargers, and vehicles capable of safe vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid operation. Legislation, standards and distribution connection rules must also be updated so these technologies can operate safely, with clear rules for interoperability, metering, export, tariffs, network approvals and consumer protection.

But none of that works without electricians. Every policy that stimulates this must be matched with a workforce delivery plan. Electrical apprentices complete at a higher rate than the all-apprentice benchmark once mature cohorts are measured: 61% at six years and 69% at seven, against benchmarks of 50% and 59%. The problem is progression. Electrical apprenticeships are accumulating credits at just 64 - 69% annually, compared with 86% across all apprentices.

They are staying in the system but not moving through it fast enough. To meet the demand, the country needs around 2,200 to 2,500 qualified electricians a year through to 2030, which implies 3,000 to 4,100 starts a year depending on whether progression improves. Where is the policy that addresses this?

Delivering that workforce means designing the system around industry and employers. Taking on an electrical apprentice is a commitment of at least three years, often longer, and that commitment is where the entire pipeline begins. Training needs to be faster to adapt, more modular, and more connected to real work.

Licensing settings need to support that shift rather than slow it. New Zealand does not need to create a new licence class every time a new technology emerges. The smarter approach is to recognise existing competence of electrical practitioners, add targeted endorsements where needed, and keep regulation focused on the risk of the work, not the label on the licence. That builds the competence required to do the work safely and the controls needed to protect consumers, workers, homes and networks.

The funding model, unchanged in more than 15 years, needs to shift from providers to the businesses at the centre of competency development. Reward the employers who invest in the future workforce, and back workers to grow in real working environments.

Electrical contractors are training people while running businesses, managing risk and delivering work where mistakes carry real consequences. That is where competence is built, and a modern skills system needs to fund the employer role accordingly. An industry-led agenda cannot be filtered through Crown entities in a way that dilutes employer leadership. Fund the right employers at the right scale, and the workforce will follow.

Electrification is our country’s major opportunity, but it will not happen through loans, subsidies and election promises alone. It will require practical regulation, fast upskilling for the current workforce, and long-term investment in the employers training the next generation. New Zealand can electrify faster, safer and more fairly, but not without electricians. It is time to back the employers at the centre of this story.