General 2 — Te Rehe Solar Network

“It all began with an idea of helping people while moving the environmental needle up a notch”

Nick, CEO Stewart Group

How it began...

Te Rehe Solar Network (TRSN) stems from Stewart Group, a financial advisory organization established over 35 years ago.

What started as a way to reduce Stewart Group’s reliance on the grid evolved into a non profit community network of environmentally focused power users.

TRSN is named after Stewart Group’s holding company, Te Rehe Group, which in turn is named to honor the Stewart family’s ancestor; tīpuna, Te Rehe (Ngāti Huirapa, Ngāi Tahu).

How Te Rehe Solar Network works

TRSN is the first private peer-to-peer energy network consisting of members with solar panels who are both solar energy generators and solar consumers who do not have solar panels.

By partnering with Our Energy, TRSN members are able to utilise local, clean solar power generated within the network.

Local energy refers to electricity that is produced within your local community from sources such as locally owned rooftop solar, privately owned micro hydro assets or even privately held wind generation assets. Your consumption needs are matched directly with excess generation from these sources. TRSN is based in Hawke’s Bay, with capability for prospects from other regions to join as well.

With a careful balance of solar power generators and users in the TRSN community a self sufficiency of power is created across the network - reducing the reliance on the grid.

TRSN operates without revenue incentives. Community, sustainability and helping people are at the core of everything we do at TRSN.

JOIN

Easy to join

No lock-in terms

Weekly $5 - $8 charge¹

SAVE

Up to 23% savings without solar panels

& with solar panels save up to 29%

TRACK

Solar power is sold at 12c per hour²

Usage could be tracked using Our Energy’s Lemonade App

Standard Our Energy subscription fee
Power is sold at 12c per daylight hours and after wholesale spot rate on a dull day and night time

Frequently Asked Questions

TRSN is a peer-to-peer, private, local energy network, enabled by Our Energy. What that means is we’re utilising community-generated local, clean power to help our community be less reliant on the grid… quite literally power to (and from) the people!
Local energy is electricity that is produced within your local community from sources such as locally owned rooftop solar, privately owned micro hydro assets or even privately held wind generation assets. We match your consumption needs directly with excess generation from these sources. TRSN is based in Hawke’s Bay, with the capability for prospects from other regions to join too.
TRSN uses AI technology which ‘learns’ from your electricity use over time. It can then predict how much power you use at any point of the day, or, for producers, what time of day you tend to produce excess solar, and then matches that with others within the network.
The easiest way to join is to go to Our Energy on https://www.ourenergy.co.nz/join#te-rehe-solar-network and select Te Rehe Solar Network from the dropdown options while filling the form.
There is no ‘lock in’ period, and you can leave the network at any time. If you’re having any trouble, please reach out to your referrer for help joining.
Absolutely! There are three options for deciding where your excess solar will go:
1. Let TRSN do the work for you and find a place for your excess solar;
2. Choose to link one or more ICPs to your own. For example, your family bach and or an elderly relative. As long as the ICP’s are signed up to TRSN, all of your excess solar can be sent to the chosen additional ICP/s to allow them to benefit from the savings too;
3. Give the gift of power by donating to charity, community group, or anyone else you like. Simply log in to the lemonade app, and choose who you’d like to donate your excess solar to. Recipients must be on TRSN.
The average savings across members in TRSN is between 5-17%. However, we have seen savings of up to 23% for those without panels installed, and 29% for those with a solar array. For a more accurate estimate of your potential savings, Our Energy can create a comparison for you based on previous bills from your current power company.
Our Energy bills on a weekly cycle, with around a 10-day delay from when you actually consume the power. Your bill will contain the balance of your energy use as well as a subscription fee of $5-$8 (depending on your subscription) for being on the community platform. During the day, you’ll be ‘buying’ community power at 12c. At night or on dull days, you will be purchasing power from the grid at wholesale price – typically we have seen this range from 5c to 15c overnight.
Not at all! However, we do strive to keep a balance of generators and users so we can offer maximum savings to our community – so if we have a lot of new users wanting to join, we need to balance this against our generating households. Currently TRSN membership is by invite only to help us keep this balance in check.
Our Energy systems enabling our sharing network run on a weekly, Monday to Sunday cycle. If your switch to TRSN happened mid-week, you will not be part of the current week’s cycle. You should see TRSN power usage once the next cycle starts on Monday.