New Zealand quietly became one of the more demanding solar design markets on 1 July 2026. Since that date the four largest retailers, holding roughly 87 percent of connections between them, must offer a plan where the export rate varies through the day. The rule sets the shape of the price and explicitly not its level, so retailers place the peaks where they choose and there is no floor. The peaks generally fall in the evening, when a solar array produces nothing. A tool holding one flat buyback rate cannot describe that market, and the households it quotes will end up exporting into the trough and buying their evening energy at retail. This guide covers what the New Zealand stack has to do.
Short version. The best solar software for a New Zealand business in 2026 is a stack whose core treats the retailer plan as an hourly price profile and dispatches a battery against both that profile and the household load. That capability is what the July 2026 change made necessary, and most tools do not have it.
This page covers the category as a whole. For the tool-by-tool comparisons see our best solar design software New Zealand and best solar proposal software New Zealand guides.
Dispatch a battery against a real NZ plan
A SurgePV engineer takes one of your addresses and the household's retailer plan, runs 8,760-hour dispatch simulation, and shows what storage captures that panels alone cannot.
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The Six Categories, And The Plan As A Design Input
| Category | What it does | New Zealand requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Design and simulation | Layout, yield, battery dispatch against price | Must accept an hourly export price profile |
| Proposal and quoting | Effective achieved rate, plan comparison | Must report what is achievable, not advertised |
| CRM and pipeline | Leads, retailer and plan recorded, conversion | The plan is qualification data |
| Compliance | AS/NZS 4777.2 and AS/NZS 5033 | Shared with Australia |
| Project execution | Scheduling, install, commissioning | Standard |
| Monitoring | Performance, service, warranty | Standalone |
What Is Genuinely New Zealand-Specific
The peaks fall when the array is asleep. This is the central design fact. On a time-varying plan the highest rates are generally paid in the evening, and solar arrays generate nothing then. An array without storage exports overwhelmingly into the midday trough and imports at retail through the evening peak.
A two to eight fold spread between plans. From around 5 cents at the low end among majors to peaks reaching 40 cents in winter on some plans. That range makes the plan choice a larger lever than most hardware decisions.
No feed-in tariff, so no floor. Every rate is a commercial term and can change. A twenty-year projection built on today’s peak rate carries a disclosure obligation, and it argues for prioritising self-consumption value, which is insulated from retailer decisions.
Keep the hierarchy straight. Direct self-consumption avoids retail import, which generally exceeds any export rate. The battery’s best job is covering the household’s own evening demand; exporting into the peak is what it does with the remainder. The exception is unusually high peak plans where the ordering can flip for part of the evening, and only an hourly model finds the crossover.
AS/NZS 4777.2 and AS/NZS 5033, shared with Australia, which is convenient for trans-Tasman operators.
Where New Zealand Teams Overbuy And Underbuy
Underbought: hourly export price profiles. The capability the July 2026 change made essential, and the one most tools lack.
Underbought: battery dispatch against price as well as load. Dispatching against load alone misses the arbitrage entirely.
Underbought: effective achieved rate reporting. The number the customer actually gets, and almost nobody reports it.
Overbought: nothing much. New Zealand teams generally run lean. The issue is that the core tool may now be describing a market that changed underneath it.
Report the effective rate, not the advertised one
SurgePV reports exported volume by time of day against the plan's hourly rates, so the proposal states what the household will actually achieve rather than what the plan advertises.
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The Platforms New Zealand Businesses Should Evaluate
1. SurgePV, the integrated core
Design and proposals from one record, with retailer plans modelled as hourly export profiles, battery dispatch against both load and price, effective achieved rate reporting, plan comparison for the same system, the AS/NZS standards library shared with Australian work and 8,760-hour module-level shading. White-label proposals with e-signature. $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year.
2. OpenSolar
Free, widely used in trans-Tasman residential work, with a presentable customer document. No hourly export price modelling. See our OpenSolar alternative comparison.
3. PVsyst
The bankable simulation reference, frequently named by lenders on commercial and ground-mount work. No proposal layer and no retailer plan logic. See our PVsyst alternative review.
4. PV*SOL
Capable residential modelling with solid self-consumption and storage tooling. Desktop-based, plan logic applied manually. Our PV*SOL alternative guide covers the trade-offs.
5. Aurora Solar
Strong residential design built around US net metering, which New Zealand does not operate. See our Aurora Solar alternative comparison.
6. Spreadsheets plus a yield tool
Common in smaller practices, and the usual home of one flat buyback rate standing in for an hourly profile.
New Zealand Solar Software Stack Comparison
| Capability | SurgePV | OpenSolar | PVsyst | PV*SOL | Aurora |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design and simulation | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Proposal from design record | Yes | Yes | No | Partial | Yes |
| Hourly export price profiles | Yes | No | Manual | Partial | No |
| Battery dispatch vs load and price | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | Partial |
| Effective achieved rate reporting | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Plan comparison for one system | Yes | No | Manual | Manual | No |
| AS/NZS standards library | Yes | Partial | Manual | Partial | No |
| Hourly module-level shading | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Worked Example: The Trap The July Change Created
An illustrative comparison, not a specific customer project. A 6 kW array, household with modest daytime and strong evening consumption, three configurations.
| A: flat 17c plan, no storage | B: time-varying plan, no storage | C: time-varying plan with storage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midday surplus | Exported at 17c | Exported into the trough | Stored |
| Evening household demand | Imported at retail | Imported at retail | Served from battery |
| Evening export | None | None | Residual into the peak |
| Export value captured | Moderate and predictable | Poor | Strong |
| Suits | Households that cannot add storage | Nobody, on this load profile | This household |
Column B is the trap. A household moved onto a time-varying plan without storage is worse off than on a decent flat plan, because all its export lands in the trough while it buys evening energy at retail. The headline peak rate is real and entirely unreachable.
Column C is what the plan structure is designed to reward, and it is why plan advice and storage advice cannot be separated. An installer who recommends the time-varying plan and leaves the battery for a later conversation has actively made their customer worse off, which is a genuinely new failure mode in this market and one worth briefing your sales team on.
Who Should Choose What
- Choose SurgePV if you need hourly export profiles, battery dispatch against price and plan comparison in one tool.
- Start with OpenSolar if you are doing straightforward residential volume and can accept flat-rate modelling for now.
- Choose PVsyst where a lender names it on commercial work, paired with separate quoting.
- Record the retailer and plan at qualification. It determines the export profile and therefore the design.
- Never recommend a time-varying plan without modelling storage. Doing so leaves the customer in column B.
After signing, pipeline and follow-up sit in a CRM. QuickEstimate takes the handoff from SurgePV by API.
Plans as hourly profiles, not a single rate
Retailer plans modelled hourly, battery dispatch against load and price, effective achieved rate reporting, AS/NZS libraries and white-label proposals from $1,299 per user per year.
Book a Free DemoThe Bottom Line
New Zealand’s export market changed shape in July 2026 and flat-rate modelling stopped describing it.
- Treat the plan as a design input. Rates span 5 cents to 40 cents depending on plan and hour, and that decides the configuration.
- Report the effective achieved rate. The advertised peak falls in hours when the array generates nothing.
- Pair plan advice with storage advice. A time-varying plan without a battery leaves the customer worse off than a flat one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What software does a New Zealand solar company actually need?
What changed for New Zealand export in July 2026?
Why do time-varying rates make storage important?
How wide is the spread between New Zealand retailers?
Does New Zealand have a feed-in tariff?
Should self-consumption still come before peak export arbitrage?
Which solar software should a New Zealand installer start with?
Nirav Dhanani CEO, Qbits Energy
Co-founder & CEO driving Qbits Energy's product strategy and growth across India.