14 guides
Power guides
How switching actually works, what the lines on your bill mean, and what your options are when a power bill goes wrong. Plain English, New Zealand rules, no sign-up.
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How to switch power company in NZ
The switch itself is administrative. Nobody visits, nothing is dug up, and your power does not go off. Here is what happens, in order, and what to check before you agree to anything.
Read the guide
3 guides
Switching power company
Frank Energy is closing
If your power comes from Frank Energy, you will need a new retailer. Nothing about your supply changes while you sort it out, and you have more control over the outcome if you move first.
How to switch power company in NZ
The switch itself is administrative. Nobody visits, nothing is dug up, and your power does not go off. Here is what happens, in order, and what to check before you agree to anything.
Renting and power
If the bill comes to you, the account is yours and so is the choice of retailer, with no landlord permission needed. Here is how to set it up, share it, and close it without a nasty final bill.
5 guides
Bills and pricing
The average power bill in NZ
"What is the average power bill" has no honest single answer, because bills depend on usage and usage varies more than price does. Here is the published figure, and how to turn it into your number.
The end of low user plans
The low user / standard user split has shaped New Zealand power pricing for two decades. The regulation behind it is being removed in April 2027, and low-usage households are the ones who feel it.
Time-of-use and free-hour plans
Some plans charge different rates at different times of day, and a few give you an hour free. They are genuinely cheaper for some households and quietly worse for others. The difference is whether you can move load.
Understanding your power bill
A New Zealand power bill has two kinds of charge on it and one of them has nothing to do with your power company. Here is how to read the whole thing, line by line.
Winter power bills, explained
The same house on the same plan can pay twice as much in July as in February. Here is what drives that, how to check it is only the season, and which changes actually make a difference.
4 guides
Meters, ICPs and networks
Electricity meter types explained
Your meter configuration decides which plans you can be offered and how many rates appear on your bill. It is a property of the house, not something you pick at sign-up.
Smart meters explained
A smart meter ends estimated bills and makes time-of-use pricing possible. It does not make your power cheaper on its own, and it is not owned by your power company.
What is a lines company?
Two different businesses appear on one power bill. One you choose and one you cannot, and knowing which is which decides who you call in an outage and what a switch can save you.
What is an ICP number?
The ICP is the permanent identifier for the point where electricity enters your property. It stays with the address when you leave, and quoting it removes most of the ambiguity from a switch.
2 guides
Help when money is tight
Getting power with bad credit
A failed credit check is a hurdle, not a wall. Prepay, a bond and the Consumer Care rules all exist for exactly this situation, and knowing what to ask for changes the outcome.
If you cannot pay your power bill
Ring before the due date, not after. Retailers have obligations about how they treat customers in difficulty, and almost all of them are easier to use before an account is in arrears.
Compare 8 power companies
Reading is the easy part. When you are ready, answer a few questions about your household and we will show you what the companies we work with offer at your address.
Compare power companiesAbout these guides
Do I have to sign up to anything to read these?
No. Every guide is free to read, there is no account, no paywall and no email capture in front of them. We make money when someone we introduce to a power company signs up, which is why the guides exist — not the other way round.
Are these guides independent?
They are written to be accurate first. Nothing in a guide is written to steer you to a particular company, and where a guide says we cannot verify something, that is what it means. We compare 8 power companies; how we compare sets out our commercial arrangements in full.
How current is the information?
Each guide carries the date it was published or last updated, at the top. Any price figure in a guide is rendered from the data on this site rather than typed into the text, so it moves when the data does — the national average shown across the site is the May 2026 MBIE release, currently 42.04c per kWh including GST.
Which guide should I read first?
If you are thinking about switching, start with how to switch power company — it covers what actually happens, how long it takes and what does not change. If you are trying to work out why a bill is what it is, start with understanding your power bill. There are 14 guides in total, grouped by subject on this page.