Taranaki marae sees 400 percent power bill rise after solar install

Waitara's Ōwae Marae is warning others to be wary when converting to solar energy after an over-engineered installation led to an electricity bill blow-out.

Poor advice and industry assumptions made the solar installation on Ōwae's new wharekai in Taranaki unnecessarily expensive, said Manukorihi Pā Trust secretary Roina Graham.

The sobering caution was given at He Ahi Kā, He Ao Hou, a community-focused conference leading into the Aotearoa Energy Summit in New Plymouth this week.

Graham said the pā had hoped to save money with solar, but instead monthly bills had risen from $400 to as much as $2000.

Trustees called in local renewable energy experts to assess the system.

They found an expensive 300kVA transformer with excessive capacity had been installed.

Graham said that size of transformer would usually serve 70 houses.

"Why would you install that on the marae, attached to the kitchen?