Last month Te Aponga Uira presented at the Oceania Renewable Power Summit in Auckland, providing an update on the Cook Islands electricity landscape, our progress in Rarotonga on renewable energy, and our vision for the future.

Chief Executive Officer, Lesley Katoa, and Chief Engineer, Tei Nia, were joined by Stephen Peters from New Zealand partner McMahon. Together, they outlined the opportunities and challenges of delivering renewable electricity on a small, isolated Pacific Island. A summary of their talking points follows.

On the theme of resilience
“Our vision is to empower the community through sustainable and innovative energy solutions. Empowering the community means reliability. People want to flick on the switch and the lights come on. A major part of ensuring that reliability is resilience.”

Where we’re at today
“When it comes to renewable energy, we take a cautious approach. Our grid is aging and not yet capable of delivering reliable energy if we add too much, too quickly. But we are making progress, starting back in 2012 with solar contributing an average of 16% of our electricity produced. That figure has come down to around 11% with some smaller solar systems coming offline and increasing demand. Our residents, businesses, and more than 160,000 annual visitors enjoy reliable electricity all year round thanks to this careful balance.”

Our renewable energy vision
“As part of our Economic Recovery Plan, the Cook Islands has a goal of 60% renewable electricity by 2030. The work we are doing to strengthen our grid sets the foundation to enabling that vision. Larger solar projects are easier to integrate and deliver economies of scale. But land availability remains a challenge, with complex family ownership and lease negotiations required for projects like solar farms.”

On recent infrastructure upgrades
Recent investments include:

• Upgrading our SCADA system for automated monitoring, control, and reporting
• Installing new generation switchgear, replacing 30-year-old equipment
• Beginning work on the 13km 33KV line
• Progressing a partnership with Tesla to introduce the Tesla Micro Grid Controller for overall generation control

The Oceania Renewable Power Summit is a two-day conference and exhibition focused on deploying solar, wind, and battery technologies across the Oceania region. Around 200 delegates from New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific, and South East Asia attend.