Massively massively recommended. We had a big battery array (49kW across three phases) put in four years ago. c £35k cost. It’s been a total nightmare for many reasons, not least 1. our installer being totally useless and unresponsive and 2. Givenergy, our battery supplier, going bust. Long story short it had never worked anywhere near properly despite countless hours on phones and emails; the best we’d achieved was one third of the batteries working. Rather than write it off, I asked a PM friend to try to source someone who could come on site and review and revive the system. He found Solar Tech Support and Ron. Ron assured us he was the man to get it going again. After so many years of pain, I was not convinced but, true to his word, five hours later it was up and running. Lovely chap, super knowledgeable with a support team to lean on who are also clearly super technical. I honestly didn’t think there was much chance of getting this array going ever again so was absolutely delighted when Ron and team pulled it off. Bravo!
GivEnergy in New Zealand after the administration your battery still works — here's how, and how a UK engineer helps remotely
- UK-based · Yorkshire · your evening = my morning
- 15+ years GivEnergy diagnostics
- Remote-only · free unless I fix it
A 30-minute remote diagnostic from the UK confirms whether your fault is a configuration fix (I can do it during the call) or needs an EWRB-registered electrician (I write the spec for them). Free to enquire — £95 (about NZ$200) only if I fix it remotely. No fix, no fee.
Book your remote diagnosticHow remote diagnostics workJust had my whole givenergy system go down. Battery and inverter. Ron sorted me out today 3 hours to get it all sorted. Clear instructions and successful. Could not ask for better. Now that givenergy has gone bust i was concerned as to where to go for help. I have found it and can recommend them to all you givenergy users out there. Off for a cup of coffee now😄
Very pleased with solar tech support , they were very informative and helpful , arrived when they said they would and did a great job , I would highly recommend them .
Brilliant support to get my solar battery working again. I didn’t expect help on a Saturday but Ron answered the phone, listened and sent me the information I needed to get it going, answered questions etc. A brilliant service I’d happily recommend.
Ron responded very promptly regarding my GivEnergy battery issue, his knowledgeable diagnosis was spot on and resolved the issue on first attempt. Would recommend to any and all.
Ron diagnosed the problem remotely - efficiently and order the part identified as the fault - this part came directly from to me and Ron visited within a few days and within the hour corrected the problem and since everything has been excellent -highly recommended - very pleasant manner and lovely to work with . Ivor Morris.
What happened to GivEnergy, and what it means in New Zealand
GivEnergy's UK manufacturer is in administration. GivEnergy Ltd appointed administrators on 9 April 2026. New Zealand was never an official GivEnergy market — systems here were imported or sourced through third parties — so there's no separate GivEnergy New Zealand entity to fall back on, and no GivEnergy-employed support. (For the UK side of the same event, see our GivEnergy administration page.)
In plain terms: the company that made your battery is gone, and the manufacturer-backed warranty route is gone with it. What has not changed is the kit on your wall — it keeps running exactly as it did the week before the announcement.
There is one important survivor — GivEnergy Software Ltd, the separate company that runs the cloud and the GivEnergy app. That company was not included in the administration and is still trading. For you in New Zealand, that means your app and the data flowing through it keep working.
Will my GivEnergy battery keep working?
Yes. The battery and inverter hardware operate independently of the manufacturer's existence. The BMS, the cell chemistry, and the inverter firmware already on the unit all keep doing what they were doing on the day before the administration was announced.
Your system charges on solar surplus, discharges to cover your loads, exports to the grid (within your lines-company connection limit), and answers the app when you check it. None of that depends on a manufacturer server staying online.
What you have lost is future support: no warranty replacements, no firmware updates from a manufacturer team, no new commissioning options. The hardware that's installed now is the hardware you have — which is exactly why keeping it healthy and correctly configured matters more than it did.
What about my warranty in New Zealand?
The manufacturer warranty is effectively gone. The UK administrator has confirmed it will not be honouring further GivEnergy Ltd hardware warranties, and there is no New Zealand entity that inherits that obligation.
Your position then depends on how you bought the system. If a New Zealand retailer or installer sold it to you, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986 give you statutory rights — goods must be of acceptable quality and fit for purpose — and those rights run against the business that sold you the system, not GivEnergy directly. If your installer is still trading, that's the right party to raise it with.
The honest caveat for New Zealand: a lot of GivEnergy kit here was grey-imported — bought directly from an overseas seller. If that's you, the Consumer Guarantees Act gives you little practical recourse against an offshore supplier, so treat any future fix as out-of-warranty paid work and budget accordingly. Keep your original invoice and commissioning paperwork together either way. The Commerce Commission and the Disputes Tribunal are the escalation routes for a consumer-rights dispute with a NZ seller who won't engage.
What's different about a GivEnergy system installed in New Zealand?
A New Zealand GivEnergy install runs to NZ grid rules, not the UK G98/G99 framework. The relevant inverter standard is AS/NZS 4777.2:2020 on a nominal 230 V supply — the joint Australia/New Zealand standard — and the connection is approved by your local lines company (EDB) through a distributed-generation application under Part 6 of the Electricity Industry Participation Code. On an imported unit it's worth confirming the inverter is actually set to the NZ grid profile and not left on its UK G98/G99 setpoints — that single setting changes the voltage and frequency limits your inverter trips on.
It also changes how you get paid for export. New Zealand has no government feed-in tariff; instead your electricity retailer pays a buy-back rate (broadly 8–17 c/kWh, and retailers vary a lot — it pays to shop around). A new 10 kW default export limit for rooftop solar comes into force from May 2026. If your export readings look wrong in the app, confirm the inverter is exporting correctly before assuming the buy-back is the issue.
And it changes who signs off physical work. Grid-connected solar is high-risk prescribed electrical work in New Zealand: it must be done by an EWRB-registered electrician (with the Mains Parallel Generation endorsement), independently inspected with a Record of Inspection, and certified with a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) and Electrical Safety Certificate (ESC). The market is overseen by the Electricity Authority; EECA publishes the residential best-practice guidance.
The most common GivEnergy faults right now
These are the recurring patterns from orphaned GivEnergy diagnostics this month. The fault mechanism is the same wherever the system is installed; only the resolution path varies by jurisdiction.
The most common single symptom right now. Caused by failed firmware updates, BMS comms timeouts, or charge-cycle imbalance. Often recoverable with a controlled power-cycle and an in-app re-pair. See our GivEnergy red status light page for the full diagnostic.
CAN-bus comms between battery modules drop. Symptom: app shows 0% or stale SoC. Often a single failed module rather than a system-wide fault — diagnosable from the event log via the app. See battery not charging for the full diagnostic.
Inverter trips when local grid voltage exceeds the AS/NZS 4777.2 ceiling. In New Zealand this routes to your lines company for a voltage check — they're obliged to keep you inside statutory limits. Common around midday on sunny days in PV-dense streets and rural spurs.
Anti-islanding logic disconnects EPS during the grid-loss test. Common where the backup load contactor was wired but never fully commissioned. Often a configuration fix, not a hardware fault. See click of death if the BMS audibly clicks during the fault.
Wi-Fi dongle disconnected or cloud-account token expired. The hardware is fine; the cloud bridge dropped. See portal offline for the recovery procedure — fixable from your end without an engineer in most cases.
Can a UK engineer actually fix my New Zealand system?
Yes — for diagnostic and configuration work. No — for anything that needs hands inside the inverter. The clean line is: anything that runs through the app, the cloud, or your monitoring data, I can do remotely from Yorkshire. Anything that needs the cover off the unit needs an EWRB-registered electrician in New Zealand.
- · Pull and read your event log + fault history
- · Diagnose root cause from monitoring data
- · Configuration changes via app / portal
- · Confirm the inverter is on the NZ grid profile, not UK setpoints
- · Firmware re-pair, factory reset, account migration
- · Charge / discharge schedule + export-limit checks
- · Grid over-voltage evidence pack for your lines company
- · Written engineer report for your electrician or insurer
- · Anything inside the inverter enclosure
- · Physical battery module swap or replacement
- · Anti-islanding / EPS recommissioning
- · New AS/NZS 4777.2 commissioning + inspection
- · Lines-company (EDB) connection paperwork
- · Anything needing a CoC / ESC sign-off
When the work is split — diagnostic from me, physical from your local electrician — I write the engineer report so your EWRB-registered electrician has a clear specification to quote against. That's usually faster and cheaper than paying for diagnosis and repair as two separate call-outs.
How a remote diagnostic works from New Zealand
New Zealand is 11 to 13 hours ahead of the UK, so the natural overlap is your evening and my morning — an early-evening NZ slot lands in my UK working morning, no awkward small-hours calls for either of us. A typical diagnostic finishes inside a single 30-minute session.
Send me your GivEnergy app login or read-only access plus the symptom in a sentence. I review your event log before the call — which, given the timezone, I do in your overnight.
We walk through the inverter LCD, screenshot the relevant settings, and I confirm the diagnosis on screen with you — booked for your evening, my morning.
If the fix is in the app or portal, I do it during the call — that's the £95 (about NZ$200), and only if it works. If it needs an EWRB-registered electrician, I draft the spec.
PDF in your inbox: the diagnosis, the fix, the parts list (if relevant), and a specification your local electrician can quote against.
What it costs
The remote diagnostic is free to begin. You only pay if I actually fix your fault remotely — no fix, no fee. Billing is in GBP through Stripe; the NZ dollar figure is indicative and your card provider applies its own rate.
Fault diagnosed in 30 minutes, written report included. £95 (about NZ$200) only if I fix it remotely — nothing if I can't. No fix, no fee.
Independent written report — diagnosis, fix specification, parts list. Suitable for your electrician, your insurer, or your lines company to act on.
Physical repairs in New Zealand are carried out by your local EWRB-registered electrician, who quotes separately for any hands-on work — my report gives them the exact specification so they're not paying me to diagnose it twice.
About Ron — who's actually doing this
I'm Ronald Vitova. I studied MEng Electronic Engineering at the University of York. I've spent 15+ years on solar PV and battery storage systems and run Solar Tech Support from Yorkshire in the UK. Since the GivEnergy administration on 9 April I've been the most active independent voice publishing technical guidance and diagnostics for orphaned GivEnergy owners.
For New Zealand the timezone actually works in your favour: your evening is my morning, so we book a relaxed early-evening slot and I've already reviewed your event log over your night. Same language, real engineer, GivEnergy diagnostic depth that's hard to find locally.
If we need physical work in New Zealand, I refer to an EWRB-registered electrician and write the spec for them. I have no commercial relationship with any NZ installer — independent advice means independent.
Frequently asked questions
New Zealand GivEnergy owner needing remote help?
Free 30-minute remote diagnostic — £95 (about NZ$200) only if I fix it. No fix, no fee. Written engineer report delivered the same day, ready for your EWRB-registered electrician or lines company. Your evening is my morning — plain English, real engineer.
GivEnergy problems? No fix, no fee.
I’ve worked on hundreds of GivEnergy systems and know the kit inside out. If yours is playing up, my promise is simple — no fix, no fee: just £95 if we fix it, free if we don’t.
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