Finding the cheapest power deal for your household
The honest answer is that "cheapest" is a property of your household, not of a company. Here is the data that decides most of it, and the method that gets you the rest.
Compare 8 power companiesWhat we can show you
Where power is cheapest and dearest, May 2026
The gap between the cheapest and dearest of the 42 towns MBIE surveys is mostly lines charges — the part of the bill no power company can discount. It is the first thing to know before asking who is cheapest.
Cheapest five
MBIE's Quarterly Survey of Domestic Electricity Prices, May 2026, GST inclusive. It prices a household using 8,000 kWh a year on a low-user plan, paying on time and taking any prompt-payment discount, with controlled hot water against publicly advertised tariffs — a market indicator, not a quote.
"Cheapest power company" is the most searched question in New Zealand electricity and the one with the least honest answers. Here is what can be said accurately.
The part that is set by your address
Roughly a third to a half of a power bill is the charge from the lines company that delivers electricity to your street. It is regulated, it varies enormously between networks, and no retailer can discount it.
The table above is what that looks like in practice: across the 42 towns MBIE surveys, the spread between Wellington City and Balclutha is real money, and the lines column is most of it. If you are in an expensive network area, the cheapest available deal there will still cost more than an ordinary deal somewhere cheap. That is not a failure of shopping around.
The part you can actually change
Everything on top of lines: the energy, the metering and the retailer's own margin. This is the half that competes, and it is the half worth comparing.
What decides which plan wins for you:
Your annual usage. A power price is a daily charge plus a rate per unit. A plan with a low daily charge and a high unit rate is cheap for a small flat and expensive for a family with electric hot water. Get your annual kWh off a bill before you compare anything, because without it you are choosing on the headline rate, which is how people switch and end up paying more.
Your meter configuration. If hot water sits on a controlled circuit, a meaningful share of your usage is on a second, cheaper rate. Comparing on the anytime rate alone can point the wrong way.
The term. A fixed-term plan may be cheaper per unit and carry an exit fee. Weigh the fee against the saving over the period you will actually be there.
What we do and do not publish
We compare 8 power companies. We publish what we have verified about each of them from their own websites — plan types, gas, broadband, generation, current offers with the date we read them — and we publish the gaps as gaps.
We do not publish plan rates, because we do not have verified rate files from the retailers yet. A ranked cheapest-first list built on estimates would look authoritative and be wrong exactly where it matters. When rate files land, the ordering here will offer a price sort that genuinely re-ranks, and it will be labelled for what it is.
The method that works today
- Get your annual kWh and your meter configuration off a recent bill.
- Check what your town pays: the lines share tells you how much of your bill is immovable.
- Compare the companies on the things that are verified, and ask the shortlist for a written quote against your actual usage.
- Check the exit fee on the plan you are leaving before you commit.
That is four steps and about twenty minutes, and it beats any list.
Cheapest power company NZ — common questions
Which power company is cheapest in New Zealand?
No single company is cheapest for every household, and anyone naming one without asking about your usage is guessing. Price is a daily charge plus a rate per unit, and which combination wins depends on how much you use. We compare 8 power companies and will show you what each offers at your address; we do not publish plan rates yet, because we do not have verified rate files and an estimate presented as a price is worse than no number.
Where is power cheapest in New Zealand?
Of the 42 towns MBIE surveys, Wellington City is the least expensive at 37.01c per kWh including GST and Balclutha the most at 52.52c, against a national average of 42.04c. Most of that gap is lines charges, which are set by the network serving the address and are identical whoever bills you.
How much can I actually save by switching?
It depends on the gap between your current plan and the best available one for your usage, which is the retail half of the bill. The lines half does not move. As a rule of thumb, the further your plan's shape is from your usage — a low-user plan on a high-usage house, or the reverse — the more there is to gain.
Why do you not just publish a cheapest list?
Because we would have to invent the numbers. We hold verified profile data on the 8 companies we compare, and no verified rate files yet. A ranked price list built on estimates would look authoritative and be wrong at the level that matters, which is your address and your meter.
What actually makes one plan cheaper than another for me?
Three things, in order. Your annual kilowatt hours, because that decides whether a low daily charge or a low unit rate wins. Your meter configuration, because a controlled circuit shifts part of your usage onto a cheaper rate. And whether the plan is fixed term, because an exit fee can cancel a year of savings.
See what they offer at your address
A few questions about your household — where you are, roughly what you use, what your meter looks like — and we will show you the 8 companies we work with, what each offers, and how to get a quote. Free, and no account needed.
Compare power companiesNo plan pricing is shown yet — we are collecting rate files from the companies rather than estimating. The town figures above are MBIE's May 2026 survey. How we compare
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