How to switch power company in New Zealand

Switching power company in New Zealand is one of the least dramatic things you can do to a house. No one visits. Nothing is dug up, unplugged or turned off. The poles and wires outside stay owned by the same lines company they were owned by yesterday, because you do not get to choose that and switching does not change it. What changes is the name on the bill and the rates on it.

That is worth saying plainly, because "will my power go off" is the single most common reason people put the whole thing off.

What actually happens, in order

1. You choose a retailer and sign up. Online or by phone. You give them your address, and usually your ICP number, the code that identifies your connection point.
2. They start the switch. The new retailer files it against your ICP in the industry registry. You do not have to ring your old company to resign.
3. Your old retailer is notified. They have a short window in which they can contact you. This is where a "save" offer usually arrives.
4. A reading is taken at the changeover. On a smart meter this happens remotely. On an older meter someone may need to read it, or you may be asked to.
5. You get a final bill from the old company and a first bill from the new one. The reading is what splits them.

The whole thing is administrative. The only part with any real timing risk is step 4.

Two things worth checking before you sign

The exit fee on the plan you are leaving. Open-term plans usually have none. Fixed-term plans often do, and a fee of a hundred dollars or so quietly cancels several months of savings. It is a number your current retailer has to tell you if you ask.

What the new plan actually costs for your usage. A power price has two parts: a daily charge you pay whether or not you use anything, and a rate per unit of electricity. A plan with a very low daily charge and a high unit rate is cheap for a small flat and expensive for a family with electric hot water. Comparing on the unit rate alone is how people end up paying more after switching.

If you know roughly how many kWh you use in a year, you can compare properly. That number is on your bill, usually as a total for the last 12 months.

What switching does not fix

The lines charge. Roughly a third to a half of a New Zealand power bill is the charge from the lines company that delivers electricity to your street, and that is set by where the property is. Someone in an expensive network area who switches retailer is switching the part of the bill they can move and keeping the part they cannot.

Across the 42 towns MBIE surveys, the gap between the cheapest and the dearest is real and it is mostly lines: Wellington City sits at 37.01c per kWh and Balclutha at 52.52c, against a national average of 42.04c. You cannot switch your way out of that. You can still switch your way to a better deal on the rest of it.

If something goes wrong

Complain to the retailer first, in writing, and give them a chance to fix it. If you cannot get it resolved, Utilities Disputes is the free, independent scheme that handles electricity and gas complaints in New Zealand. You do not pay to use it, and the retailer is bound by the outcome.

When you are ready, we compare 8 power companies and can show you what they offer at your address.