Our 2025 Asset Management Plan Update

Each year we publish an asset management plan (AMP) that details how we intend to manage our assets to meet customer needs. Our 2025 AMP Update comprises two sections. Part 1 outlines our proposed investment approach for a customised price-quality path, and Part 2 provides updated planning outputs and forecasts, as well as any material changes since our 2024 AMP. It is intended to be read alongside the 2024 AMP, which sets out our 10-year plan starting from 01 April 2024.


Challenges and opportunities

The need for prudent and efficient investment in our network is more critical than ever as we face a unique set of challenges and opportunities. We must make decisions in the long-term interest of our customers, as what we do now will shape a positive future for us and for generations to come.


Challenges

  • Asset renewals – Ramping up our asset renewal programme to ensure we can effectively manage safety risk across the network and maintain reliability
  • Growth – Increasing our network’s capacity to support forecast population, demand and economic growth, which is very strong in parts of our region
  • Resilience – Strengthening the network’s resilience to natural hazards, particularly earthquakes, to reduce the risk of major disruptions to the power supply during and after these events

Opportunities

  • Meeting future needs – Preparing for new technologies that support changing customer needs and customer choice
  • Improving efficiency – Taking advantage of innovations and integrating new tools and systems to improve our efficiency


About our proposed investment approach

Our proposed approach represents our view of the investments and activities required to deliver a safe, reliable and resilient network that meets our customers’ expectations and our community’s needs, both now and in the future. It reflects the unique challenges and opportunities our business faces and ensures we can meet our safety and quality standards, as well as other regulatory obligations.

We believe our proposed expenditure is consistent with the efficient costs that a prudent electricity distributor in our particular circumstances would incur. In total, we plan to spend approximately $1.73 billion over the five-year customised price-quality path period from 01 April 2027 to 31 March 2032.

Most of the proposed spending is capital expenditure (67%), which is the long-term investments we plan to make in our physical assets. The rest is operating expenditure (33%), which is our day-to-day expenditure to run the network and support the delivery of our services.

Proposed capex investment areas

  • Renewing assets to effectively manage network risk and maintain reliability
  • Expanding and upgrading the network to support growth and prepare to meet future needs
  • Strengthening the network to increase resilience
  • Renewing and upgrading non-network assets to support new technologies and improve efficiency
Proposed opex investment areas
  • Maintaining our network assets to keep them in optimal working condition
  • Managing vegetation around our assets
  • Supporting our network and business operations


What this means for you

Our proposed investment approach strikes a careful trade-off between risk, reliability, resilience, and affordability. To arrive at this, we explored three options for investing – a balanced approach, as well as a more limited approach and an accelerated approach.

We chose the proposed approach because it best balances our customers’ priorities, particularly maintaining the reliability of your electricity supply and the affordability of your power bills. See pages 34-37 of the 2025 AMP Update for more.

Delivering this will cost you an additional $8.00 (+/- $1.00) a month in distribution lines charges over the five-year customised path period starting 01 April 2027. This is in addition to the recent Commerce Commission default path decision for Orion which resulted in an increase in distribution lines charges of around $16 per month on the average residential power bill from 01 April 2025.


How to have to have your say

We’re keen to hear your feedback on our proposed investment approach. Your input will help shape our customised path proposal, to be submitted to the Commerce Commission in mid-2026. We want to know what matters most to you.

Our consultation is open until 30 May 2025. Click the banner below to complete our short questionnaire.





Listen to Orion Group Chief Executive, Nigel Barbour, discuss the challenges and opportunities Orion faces in the coming years. He explains why applying for a customised price-quality path is essential to investing more in our network.




Each year we publish an asset management plan (AMP) that details how we intend to manage our assets to meet customer needs. Our 2025 AMP Update comprises two sections. Part 1 outlines our proposed investment approach for a customised price-quality path, and Part 2 provides updated planning outputs and forecasts, as well as any material changes since our 2024 AMP. It is intended to be read alongside the 2024 AMP, which sets out our 10-year plan starting from 01 April 2024.


Challenges and opportunities

The need for prudent and efficient investment in our network is more critical than ever as we face a unique set of challenges and opportunities. We must make decisions in the long-term interest of our customers, as what we do now will shape a positive future for us and for generations to come.


Challenges

  • Asset renewals – Ramping up our asset renewal programme to ensure we can effectively manage safety risk across the network and maintain reliability
  • Growth – Increasing our network’s capacity to support forecast population, demand and economic growth, which is very strong in parts of our region
  • Resilience – Strengthening the network’s resilience to natural hazards, particularly earthquakes, to reduce the risk of major disruptions to the power supply during and after these events

Opportunities

  • Meeting future needs – Preparing for new technologies that support changing customer needs and customer choice
  • Improving efficiency – Taking advantage of innovations and integrating new tools and systems to improve our efficiency


About our proposed investment approach

Our proposed approach represents our view of the investments and activities required to deliver a safe, reliable and resilient network that meets our customers’ expectations and our community’s needs, both now and in the future. It reflects the unique challenges and opportunities our business faces and ensures we can meet our safety and quality standards, as well as other regulatory obligations.

We believe our proposed expenditure is consistent with the efficient costs that a prudent electricity distributor in our particular circumstances would incur. In total, we plan to spend approximately $1.73 billion over the five-year customised price-quality path period from 01 April 2027 to 31 March 2032.

Most of the proposed spending is capital expenditure (67%), which is the long-term investments we plan to make in our physical assets. The rest is operating expenditure (33%), which is our day-to-day expenditure to run the network and support the delivery of our services.

Proposed capex investment areas

  • Renewing assets to effectively manage network risk and maintain reliability
  • Expanding and upgrading the network to support growth and prepare to meet future needs
  • Strengthening the network to increase resilience
  • Renewing and upgrading non-network assets to support new technologies and improve efficiency
Proposed opex investment areas
  • Maintaining our network assets to keep them in optimal working condition
  • Managing vegetation around our assets
  • Supporting our network and business operations


What this means for you

Our proposed investment approach strikes a careful trade-off between risk, reliability, resilience, and affordability. To arrive at this, we explored three options for investing – a balanced approach, as well as a more limited approach and an accelerated approach.

We chose the proposed approach because it best balances our customers’ priorities, particularly maintaining the reliability of your electricity supply and the affordability of your power bills. See pages 34-37 of the 2025 AMP Update for more.

Delivering this will cost you an additional $8.00 (+/- $1.00) a month in distribution lines charges over the five-year customised path period starting 01 April 2027. This is in addition to the recent Commerce Commission default path decision for Orion which resulted in an increase in distribution lines charges of around $16 per month on the average residential power bill from 01 April 2025.


How to have to have your say

We’re keen to hear your feedback on our proposed investment approach. Your input will help shape our customised path proposal, to be submitted to the Commerce Commission in mid-2026. We want to know what matters most to you.

Our consultation is open until 30 May 2025. Click the banner below to complete our short questionnaire.





Listen to Orion Group Chief Executive, Nigel Barbour, discuss the challenges and opportunities Orion faces in the coming years. He explains why applying for a customised price-quality path is essential to investing more in our network.




Page last updated: 23 Apr 2025, 11:47 AM