Very high temperature heat pump funding for service providers
Closed EECA funding round for experienced service providers to develop and deliver industrial heat-pump projects in New Zealand, with up to NZD10 million per provider allocation.
Această oportunitate este disponibilă momentan în limba engleză.
This closed offer co-funded service providers that design, develop and install very high temperature heat pumps for industrial and commercial customers in New Zealand. The service provider develops and implements the project; its customer is the project owner, who owns and operates the equipment. The support shares development and technology risk and requires demonstration results to be shared with other businesses.
Applicants could request up to NZD10 million of total EECA funding for a portfolio of eligible projects. The approved programme budget was also NZD10 million, including monitoring and verification costs, shared across successful providers; EECA could increase it for compelling applications. An applicant's maximum request was not a guaranteed allocation.
The allocation had two uses:
- Project development: up to 20% of the provider's funding allocation could co-fund work before the customer's final investment decision—the decision to commit to implementation. EECA and the provider agree limits and scope at each stage. This is a share of the funding allocation, not a promise to pay 20% of every development invoice.
- Implementation: the remaining allocation could cover up to 50% of an eligible project's eligible costs, capped at NZD5 million per project. The rest of those costs needs other funding.
Initial options and pre-feasibility work receives no support under this route. Supported development can include a detailed feasibility study and draft business case, then detailed design and a final investment business case; those stages may be combined for an appropriate project. For implementation, the provider contracts with its customer to deliver the project and separately with EECA for the agreed grant. Payments depend on successful delivery of milestones, rather than automatic payment of the full allocation upfront.
Eligible project costs include feasibility/design and business-case work that EECA has not already co-funded; external project-management resources; metering; and a measurement-and-verification plan by a CMVP-qualified professional to establish how performance will be measured and checked. Equipment costs can include the heat pump, waste-heat recovery, integration pipework, buffer tanks and electricity-connection upgrades specifically required by the project. Onsite electricity generation and cogeneration—producing electricity and useful heat together—are excluded.
The anticipated framework allows up to two years of development to the final investment decision, two years for implementation/construction from that decision, and two years of monitoring and verification after commissioning, within a maximum six-year contract term. Agreements had to be signed by 30 June 2026.
Both provider and customer must accept agreed data, performance reporting and knowledge-sharing deliverables. After monitoring, these can include site visits, case studies, webinars or workshops for other businesses; EECA may use project data and analysis in public case studies and require additional reporting.
Eligibility
Applicants must be private-sector businesses registered with a New Zealand Business Number, with sufficient suitably skilled and experienced New Zealand-based staff to design, develop and build the projects. A local office of an international firm can qualify, but at least some heat-pump engineering capability must be based in New Zealand. Projects must be delivered in New Zealand.
Required reference projects must have been commissioned after 1 January 2016, developed by staff still employed by the applicant, integrated with an industrial process, and supply more than 300 kW of heat hotter than 60°C. Air-source packaged units used to supply hot water do not meet this reference criterion. Applicants need to describe their full industrial heat-pump track record since that date and give detailed accounts of at least the three most recent projects, including failures to meet cost or performance objectives. New Zealand examples are preferred.
The offer supports high-temperature heat-pump projects for end uses above 85°C, as well as steam applications at an absolute pressure of at least 0.5 bar. Eligible equipment includes steam heat pumps and mechanical vapour recompression, which recompresses vapour to provide useful heat. Projects need at least 200 kW of heat output at a temperature sufficient to serve the end use without further heating, a coefficient of performance (COP) of at least 1.5, and total project cost of at least NZD250,000. COP compares useful heat output with electricity input; 1.5 means at least 1.5 units of useful heat per unit of electricity.
Providers need a plan for finding and bringing customers into the programme, a credible pipeline of possible projects, delivery arrangements and access to suitable equipment and supplier support. They must commit to collaborative development with EECA through completion and reporting. Selection considers technical ambition, integration risks, commercial prospects and the potential for replication, not merely whether a heat pump meets the numerical criteria.
Applicants must disclose conflicts of interest and avoid inducements, collusion and misleading bids. The incorporated Supplier Code requires lawful, ethical conduct without corruption; respect for labour and human rights, including supply-chain monitoring; safe workplaces and protection of government information/assets; and compliance with environmental rules while improving environmental performance. Subcontractors must be made aware of the code. Code breaches can lead to exclusion; community contributions and use of local, Māori and Pasifika businesses are encouraged practices rather than universal eligibility thresholds.
EECA can exclude applicants for material errors, false declarations, bankruptcy/receivership/liquidation, serious criminal convictions, unpaid taxes or levies, security concerns, terrorist designation, serious contract-performance problems, professional misconduct or other matters materially undermining trust. Legal and reputational checks precede contract signing; financial due diligence, references, interviews and three years of audited accounts may also be required.
How to apply
- Statut
- închis
- Se deschide
- Se închide
- Condițiile sesiunii de finanțare
- Closed; deadline was 17:00 New Zealand time on 15 May 2026, or earlier if available funding was allocated.
- Funding agreements had to be signed by 30 June 2026.
The service-provider round opened on 19 March 2026 and closed at 17:00 New Zealand time on 15 May 2026, or earlier if funds were allocated. The official page now marks it closed.
The route required the prescribed application form, signed declaration and supporting attachments to be emailed to applications@eeca.govt.nz. Proposals had to remain open for acceptance for six calendar months from the application deadline. Applicants paid their own preparation, presentation and negotiation costs and quoted prices in NZ dollars excluding GST. Questions were directed only to EECA's named procurement contact, with changes notified through GETS.
Applications needed at least 50% in every evaluation category and 65% overall. Track record, ability to deliver and project-pipeline demonstration potential each carried 30%; economic benefits carried 10%. The panel recommended a result and EECA's delegated authority decided conditional approval, followed by due diligence and agreement approval. Public value and risk could affect the recommendation beyond numerical ranking; the procurement terms allowed EECA to reject proposals or cancel the process.
The tender submission itself did not secure a grant contract. Applicants retained intellectual-property rights in their proposals but licensed EECA to retain, use, copy and disclose proposal information for the procurement process. Confidentiality protections remained subject to legal disclosure obligations.