Disclaimer
Beacon Investment Screening (the "Platform") is operated by Lumere Energy Limited ("Lumere", "we", "us"). The Platform is designed and offered for business and professional use in New Zealand's renewable-energy and electricity-grid sector, including developers, investors, landowners acting in trade, electricity distribution businesses and network operators, advisers, and government or industry participants. By accessing the Platform or any Output, you agree to this Disclaimer and the Terms of Use.
Last updated 12 August 2026.
1. What Beacon is
Beacon is a directional screening tool. It converts published grid and market data into a fast, directional view of the electrical and economic characteristics of New Zealand interconnection nodes and transmission corridors. For each node and corridor, Beacon may display a traffic-light "Beacon Call" (Opportunity, Consider, Avoid, or Local distribution), a nodal price ranking, and a probability-weighted view of saturation and headroom. Beacon's battery lens surfaces indicators such as the daily gap between the cheapest and dearest hours, how that gap compares with the rest of the island and which way it is moving, what part of the day makes that gap, grid-strength context, storage competition and reserves; its price erosion lens surfaces locational solar and wind signals. Both are derived from historical market data and Lumere's methodology. Beacon also produces an Investment Rating: a relative screening grade from 0 to 100 of how favourable a connection point's grid and market conditions are for development, with supporting indicators including a size-specific firm-export figure, a price-capture read, and an estimated achieved price in dollars per megawatt hour, all derived from published data and Lumere's methodology.
2. Screening tool only; not advice or a bankability assessment
Outputs are directional screening signals only. They are a starting point for further investigation, not a conclusion, and are not a bankability assessment, feasibility study, valuation, recommendation, engineering design, connection approval, investment product, or financial advice. Lumere is not acting as your financial adviser, investment adviser, technical adviser, engineering adviser, consenting adviser, legal adviser, or broker by making the Platform available, and no Output should be relied on as the sole or primary basis for any investment, financing, acquisition, development, grid-connection, consenting, procurement, or commercial decision.
3. The Investment Rating is a relative grid grade, not a return
The Investment Rating ranks a connection point's grid and market conditions against every other connection point in New Zealand. It is a relative screening grade only. It is not a valuation, an internal rate of return, a yield, a price target, a recommendation to build, acquire, finance or invest, or a rating of any financial product or of any person. A high grade is not a representation that a project at that location is viable, consentable, financeable or profitable. The rating screens the grid; it does not assess the wind or solar resource, land or tenure, the consenting path, connection cost, or any project-specific factor, each of which you must evaluate independently.
4. Dollar figures are screening estimates, not revenue
Where Beacon shows an achieved price in dollars per megawatt hour, or any other dollar figure, it is a screening estimate formed by applying a measured or benchmarked price-capture rate to a hydrology-normalised forward hub price with a locational adjustment. It is not a revenue forecast, a valuation, the price any project will achieve, a merchant or contracted price, or a basis for financing. It excludes project costs, losses, spill, balancing, connection and network charges, fees, taxes, and all project-specific factors. Actual prices are volatile and hydrology-dependent and will differ, potentially materially.
5. Scope and exclusions
Beacon assesses electrical and economic screening characteristics only, using publicly available inputs (including published Transpower interconnection branch-capacity information, Electricity Authority EMI nodal pricing, publicly available Transpower Envision Opportunities information, published generation and non-generation connection pipelines, and Transpower GIS information) together with Lumere's own weighting methodology. Beacon does not investigate, verify, or assess land availability or tenure, property rights, designation or consenting feasibility, environmental or ecological matters, cultural, iwi or community matters, geotechnical or hydrological conditions, construction cost, capex, opex, connection cost, connection terms, outage requirements, offtake, project financeability, credit, taxation, legal risk, or any other physical, commercial, regulatory, or legal site characteristic.
6. Nature of the method
Beacon's measures are deliberately conservative screening measures, not engineering studies. Corridor capacity is a transparent thermal screen derived from published branch ratings, not a security-constrained transfer study. Node headroom uses published worst-case N-1 winter information as a proxy for secure capacity. Queue treatment is probability-weighted by consent and delivery stage so that speculative megawatts do not automatically mark a location as full; that weighting is a screening device only and is not a prediction that any project will or will not proceed. Price is presented as a ranking or signal, not a gate. Non-generation load is shown as context and is not folded into headroom because its effect cannot reliably be determined without power-flow modelling and more detailed system analysis.
7. Storage indicators are an upper bound, not a revenue estimate
Where Beacon shows what a battery built alongside a generator would have added, that figure replays prices that have already occurred, with the battery operated as if the day's prices were known in advance. It excludes wear on the battery, network and connection charges, power used by the site itself, and revenue from reserves or other services. It is an upper bound on what was historically available at that location. It is not an estimate of what a project would earn, a revenue forecast, or a basis for financing.
8. Observed relationships are patterns, not proof of cause
Where Beacon reports a relationship between two things it measures, such as how much generation a region has already built and what output there has earned, that is a pattern observed across locations at a point in time. It is not evidence that one causes the other. Locations differ in ways Beacon does not measure, and a relationship seen in one technology may not carry to another.
9. Forward views are scenario screens, not forecasts
Beacon's forward views, including any 2028 rating and any forward price basis, are scenario screens that carry today's published development pipeline forward and price it on a hydrology-normalised forward hub level. They are not forecasts of prices, generation, congestion, build-out, project success, investment returns, or your project's revenue. Battery, solar and wind indicators (including the daily price gap, how a node compares with the rest of its island, trend, price erosion, reserves, storage-competition signals and what a co-located battery would have added) are measured from historical public market data and Lumere's domain judgment and describe what that data has shown, not what will happen. Future hydrology, market conditions, policy settings, dispatch patterns, demand, generation build-out, transmission investment and connection decisions will differ from any assumption Beacon uses, and past or modelled patterns do not guarantee future outcomes.
10. Your due diligence remains essential
You must carry out your own market, grid, legal, property, consenting, environmental, cultural, technical, financial and commercial due diligence before making any decision or committing capital. Beacon is only one input into a broader diligence process. You should independently verify capacity availability, connection feasibility, connection cost and terms, assumptions, and any project-specific issues directly with Transpower and other relevant authorities, counterparties and advisers.
11. Data sources, currency and accuracy
Inputs are sourced from public sources and refreshed on a periodic cycle determined by Lumere (currently monthly unless stated otherwise). Regional boundaries use Stats NZ Regional Council 2025 (CC BY 4.0), grouped by Beacon for screening. Views may display a time stamp showing the date or period to which the underlying data relates. Public datasets can contain errors, omissions, restatements, delays, inconsistencies, modelling assumptions and publication gaps. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Lumere does not warrant that any data, methodology, Output or feature is accurate, complete, current, error-free, uninterrupted, fit for purpose, or suitable for any use case.
12. Sources and attribution
Beacon is built on public data licensed or confirmed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0): interconnection branch capacity and the generation and non-generation connection pipelines from Transpower New Zealand Limited; nodal pricing, reserves and generation data from the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko; and regional boundaries from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. Beacon additionally uses publicly available Transpower Envision Opportunities information with attribution, as an indicative guide only and not under a Creative Commons licence. Lumere acknowledges these sources, is not endorsed by or affiliated with them, and does not present any Output as theirs. All classification, ranking and commentary is Lumere's own. A full source and licensing register is published on the Methodology page.
13. Coverage limits
Beacon covers only the parts of the New Zealand grid and related published inputs that Lumere has chosen to include from available public data. It does not cover connection assets and radial feeds for which relevant capacity is not publicly published, and it may show HVDC links or infrastructure deviations for orientation only without an operative Beacon Call. A "Local distribution" marker reflects genuinely unpublished, unavailable or unsuitable input data, not a representation that no operational issue exists.
14. No reliance on informal statements
Unless expressly set out in a written order form, the Terms of Use, or an Output purchased from Lumere, you must not rely on any estimate, illustration, statement, presentation, marketing material, demo, discussion, or correspondence as a representation, warranty, commitment or advice from Lumere. Any examples, screenshots, sample outputs and product demonstrations are illustrative only.
15. No warranty; exclusion and limitation of liability
The Platform and all Outputs are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Lumere excludes all warranties, guarantees, conditions and representations, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including any implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, acceptable quality, fitness for purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, continuity, merchantable quality, or results. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Lumere is not liable for any loss or damage arising from or in connection with the Platform or any Output, including any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive, exemplary, consequential or economic loss, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of savings, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill, loss of bargain, business interruption, or loss or corruption of data, even if Lumere knew or should have known such loss was possible. Any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded is limited to the extent set out in the Terms of Use.
16. Consumer Guarantees Act and Fair Trading Act position
Beacon is not offered as a consumer product and is intended to be supplied and acquired for business purposes. In many cases the Platform and Outputs will not be goods or services of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use. In addition, where and to the extent permitted by law, the Terms of Use contain business-use acknowledgements, contracting-out language and non-reliance provisions intended to address the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and section 5D of the Fair Trading Act 1986. Nothing in this Disclaimer, however, excludes any statutory right that cannot lawfully be excluded or contracted out of.
17. Licensed and confidential Outputs
Paid Outputs, including report cards, snapshots, subscription views and briefings, are licensed for the purchaser's internal business use only and remain subject to the Terms of Use. They may not be redistributed, resold, sublicensed, externally published or used to create competing products without Lumere's written consent. Watermarks, attribution notices and time stamps may be used to support provenance and enforcement.
18. Payments and data
Lumere holds only your name, email and organisation and a record of your purchases and access. Card and payment details are collected and stored by our payment provider, Stripe; Lumere does not see or store full card details. See Lumere's Privacy Policy for detail.
Price erosion lens (solar & wind)
What this is. A measured read of what solar and wind output has historically earned at this node compared with the average price, whether that value is eroding, and the grid risk around it.
What this is not. A price forecast, a guaranteed capture number, or a bankability study. Wind is measured from operating farms. Solar leans on what operating solar across New Zealand earns today, adjusted for this node's daily price pattern, while the solar fleet is small.
Each place is measured on its own. Beacon used to compare a node with the average of the other farms in its island, but so few solar farms have run long enough to measure that a node was being compared with a handful that included itself. Island and national figures are still shown, as context beside the local number rather than subtracted from it. The current count of measured farms is on the monthly briefing, which is where figures that move month to month belong.
Screening tool, not a bankability or forecasting product. All figures observed and backward-looking; leading indicators are derived from announced or measured facts.
Questions and error reports may be sent to ryan@lumere.co.nz. Full Terms of Use apply to the Platform and all Outputs.