Power when you are renting in New Zealand

Roughly a third of New Zealand households rent, and the power account is one of the first things that has to be sorted out in a new tenancy, usually in the same week as everything else.

First: is power included in the rent?

Check the tenancy agreement. Most rentals bill power separately, which means the account is yours. Some — boarding arrangements, some furnished short-term tenancies — include it, which means the landlord holds the account and there is nothing for you to choose.

If it is included, that is worth knowing for a different reason: you have no visibility of usage and no ability to change the plan, so the incentive to be careful with heating sits entirely with you and none of the savings do.

Setting it up

You need the address, the tenancy start date, and ideally the ICP number for the property. The ICP identifies the connection rather than the occupant, so it exists before you move in and the retailer can look it up from the address. On a unit, a rear flat or a subdivided property, quoting the ICP is what stops the account attaching to next door.

Set the start date to the first day of the tenancy, not the day you actually move your things. If there is a gap, the previous occupant's account may have closed and the connection can end up unattached.

Expect a credit check. If that is a problem, prepay and a bond are the usual routes and our guide on getting power with bad credit goes through what to ask.

What you can and cannot change

You can change retailer. As the account holder, you are the customer at that connection. Nobody needs to approve it, nothing physical happens, and the landlord is not involved.

You cannot change the property. Anything that touches the meter, the wiring or the roof — switching to a different meter configuration, adding a controlled hot water circuit, installing solar — is the owner's decision because it is their asset. Ask if you want it; do not arrange it.

That split is worth keeping in mind when comparing plans. A plan that depends on a controlled circuit is only available to you if the property already has one, and that is a fact about the house.

Flats and shared houses

The retailer contracts with one person. That person is liable for the whole bill, and a flat agreement dividing it six ways is an arrangement between flatmates that the retailer is not party to.

Two things follow. If you are the account holder, you carry the risk, and it is reasonable to ask for contributions before the due date rather than after. If the account holder moves out, the account has to be closed with a reading and reopened in someone else's name, not informally handed over.

Moving out

Close the account with a final reading on the last day of the tenancy, and give the retailer a forwarding address. An account you simply stop paying stays open in your name, and the next occupant's usage arrives on your bill.

Take a photo of the meter on the day you leave. It costs nothing and it settles any argument about the final reading.

Is it worth switching if you might move in a year?

Usually yes, as long as you avoid a fixed term with an exit fee, since you may not be there at the end of it. Open-term plans generally have no penalty for leaving.

We compare 8 power companies and can show you what each offers at your address. The national average as at May 2026 was 42.04c per kWh including GST, but what your address costs depends heavily on which lines company serves it, and we publish that figure for each of the 42 towns MBIE surveys.