Through FlexForum connections, Orion and Wellington Electricity partnered to launch the Resi-Flex project. The objective of the trial is to test commercial mechanisms that incentivise residential flexibility and generate insights for the wider electricity sector. By partnering on the project Orion and Wellington Electricity are able to accelerate progress, share resources and expertise, and create scalable insights. The trial aims to provide insights to inform the design of any future trials and supports steps in the Flexibility Plan.
Resi-Flex is following a three-phased, learning-by-doing approach. To date, the project has undertaken research to understand the needs, preferences and barriers of all stakeholders across the flexibility value chain including households, flexibility stakeholders and distribution network companies. This research led to the design of the commercial mechanisms which were tested in Phase 3. Phase 3 is ongoing but the latest report published in February 2026 gives an interesting insight into customer behaviour and considerations for future trials.
Orion and Wellington Electricity partnered with Octopus Energy and Ecotricity to deliver the three trials to incentivise residential consumers to shift their electricity usage, reducing peak demand on the network.
The report outlines many objectives for the trial, including:
The three trials are:
1. Savings Sessions (Octopus Energy) & Shift to Win
Resi-Flex tested customers' willingness to reduce their energy use during peak or high-price periods using two incentive models: Savings Sessions ($3/kWh saved against the baseline) and Shift to Win (entry into a $50 draw for customers who save against the baseline).
Among Orion customers who took part in both Saving Sessions and Shift to Win, 67% said they preferred Saving Sessions. Interestingly, participants said they’d want more frequent Savings Sessions (2-4 times per month, instead of 1-2 as assumed in the trial). This shows customers are willing to inconvenience themselves or break habits for a small incentive relatively often.
Saving money (70%) was the top motivator for reducing electricity use. The top suggestions for making Saving Sessions more engaging were clearer rewards or payments (62%) and more information about individual savings (52%).
Shift to Win had lower success rates and average energy savings. This was expected due to participants not being guaranteed an incentive if they saved energy against their baseline, as well as only needing to save a minimum amount of energy to be in the draw, compared to Savings Sessions where every kWh saved earns a reward.
The results from Savings Sessions are a positive indication that this mechanism can scale and deliver significant benefits. The commercial mechanism reliably delivered 0.7 kW of load reduction right when it was needed. On a local level, if 10 homes on a typical 50 house urban feeder participate, that's about 7 kW of reduction. While 1,000 houses in a suburb could produce 700 kW of load reductions.
Across 2 million homes in New Zealand, with a 20% participation rate, this could result in 280 MW of reduced load. The electricity network peaks around 7,000 MW, giving residential flex the ability to reduce network peak load by 4%.
The most common actions taken to reduce load were delaying use of large appliances (oven, hot water heater, fridge, freezer (81%), followed by reducing heating/cooling (55%) and turning off lights and small appliances (38%).
2. EV Managed Charging Trial (Octopus Energy)
The trial tested how EV charging managed by Octopus could shift demand to off-peak periods. Orion provided 5c per kWh, and Octopus contributed $10 per month. Over 30 customers participated in the trial.
Significant ability to charge off-peak was demonstrated, with 97% of charging occurring outside the peak network times of 7–10am and 5–10pm. While, managed charging peaked between 3.30 and 4.30am with 2,467 kWh consumed over the whole trial.
Some customers showed habitual charging behaviours, often charging on the same days each week. While this makes it easier to predict customer behaviour, it reduces the value of managed charging, as customers are plugged in less often and require longer charging sessions.
This trial had a small sample size which reduces accuracy when scaling the results. A larger sample size may show or confirm patterns or habits that would be useful for networks to know, such as when there is likely to be a spike in charging.
3. Solar Export (Ecotricity)
This trial is ongoing but it will test how a 60c/kWh (Orion 9c + Ecotricity 51c) incentive for exporting solar energy from batteries at peak times (7–10am, 5–10pm) would influence uptake in solar and export behaviour. At this early stage, it appears that this trial has increased the uptake of solar and batteries in the Orion network area.
Any future trials should aim to include a wider range of customers and find ways to offer these initiatives to all households. Feedback from the Savings Sessions and Shift to Win trials show that customers are generally interested and flexibility can be accessible to everyone, as any electricity user can save against their baseline.
There are still barriers to rolling these trials out nationwide. These include device control limitations and lack of controllable load, pricing complexity from all parts of the value stack, and the lack of platforms to control devices.
Trust between customers, retailers, and EDBs is essential for future trials to work. Since Orion and Wellington Electricity do not directly control the load in the Resi-Flex trial, the trials rely on retailers to act on their behalf, meaning timelines are largely dictated by retail partners. Most retailers don’t yet have systems that allow residential flexibility at scale, so setting up a flexibility trial takes a long time before any load can be managed.
In the report, Orion recommends the following steps for other EDBs that want to make these flexibility initiatives part of everyday operations:
Read the full Phase 3 report on the Orion website.
This project contributes to several key steps in the the FlexForum Flexibility Plan:
