WDC recently formally voted to begin its official participation in the joint submission's production at a full council meeting. The region's three other councils are all expected to do the same, ahead of the April 8 submission deadline.
Murphy said Northland's local government had to work in favour of the new zone as much as possible.
WDC's Te Kārearea Strategic Partnership had indicated the REZ must be created in partnership with hapū, she said.
Northpower and Top Energy have presented to the partnership to understand REZ support.
Dominic Kula, WDC general manager planning and development, said feedback from this group included the need for the involve te ao Māori in the REZ pilot.
Mai said the zone's creation would help work towards addressing the current issue of the first renewable energy project to be set up in an area having to shoulder all the costs of supporting infrastructure.
She said new renewable energy production facilities would have to go through Resource Management Act consenting process. This involved consultation with Northlanders and included hapū and business people.
Councillor Carol Peters said the concept offered an opportunity to address business and community energy affordability along with consideration of the environment.
Councillor Ken Couper said the REZ pilot offered supported Northland energy self-sufficiency.
Kula said Transpower was consulting on its proposal to introduce the REZ to New Zealand as a way of facilitating new renewable energy generation investment. This might otherwise be deferred due to the cost of power network upgrading to carry the new energy production.
"The Northland region has been identified as a candidate for New Zealand's first renewable energy zone due to its high renewable generation potential, high developer interest and limited existing transmission and distribution network capacity," Kula said.
The REZ pilot concept has been widely presented to the region's local government including to the Northland Mayoral Forum on March 7.
Kula said a REZ was where multiple generators such as solar, geothermal or wind farms or major electricity users co-located to share connections to the grid, enabling cost-effective electricity infrastructure investment.
He said Northland had been chosen for the pilot because of its significant wind and solar resources. There had already been strong generation investment interest shown with dozens of applications already received by the region's three power network owners.
Kula said Transpower, Northpower and Top Energy had all advised of the need for Northland network upgrades before waiting renewable energy generation projects could go ahead. Parts of the region's power distribution network were already at capacity.
He said a REZ would build greater resilience into Northland. It would also work to make the region a net electricity exporter.
It had national benefits that included helping New Zealand meet its 100 per cent target for this type of production.
It would also increase the upper North Island's energy resilience through having a diversified electricity supply into Auckland, the country's biggest city.
■ Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
