Low user or standard user — which one am I?

One number decides it, and that is your annual kilowatt hours. Here is where the line sits, how to check which side you are on, and why the question has a deadline on it.

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The numbers the low-user line is drawn against

Whether you are a low user is a fact about your annual kilowatt hours, not about your plan. These are the figures it is measured against.

Low-user threshold: 8,000 kWh
National average, May 2026: 42.04c/kWh
Cheapest to dearest town: 37.01c – 52.52c

MBIE 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. The regulated low-user daily charge is being phased out and disappears in April 2027.

This is one of the few questions in New Zealand electricity with a genuinely objective answer. You do not decide whether you are a low user. Your meter does.

The one number

Add up the kilowatt hours across twelve months of bills. If the total is under roughly 8,000 kWh you are a low user in most of the country. Some southern regions use a higher threshold, because homes there need more heating and the line was drawn to reflect that.

That figure — 8,000 kWh a year — is also the household MBIE prices in its national survey, which is why it appears above as the reference point. At the May 2026 national average of 42.04c per kWh, that household spends about $3,363 a year on electricity.

What the two plans actually do

A power price is a daily charge plus a rate per unit. The low fixed charge regulations cap the daily charge for qualifying low-usage households, and retailers recover the difference through a higher unit rate.

So:

Low user plan: small daily charge, high unit rate. Cheaper if you use little.
Standard user plan: larger daily charge, lower unit rate. Cheaper if you use a lot.

They cross over near the threshold. Below it the capped daily charge is worth more than the higher unit rate costs; above it the arithmetic flips.

How people end up on the wrong one

Usually by moving. A household that shrinks — children leave, someone moves out, a heat pump replaces electric heating — drops below the line and stays on a standard plan for years. A household that grows does the reverse. Nothing on the bill flags it, because neither plan is wrong in any technical sense.

The check takes five minutes once a year and it is the cheapest saving available to most people.

The deadline on the question

The low fixed charge regulations are being phased out. The capped daily charge steps up each 1 April, and in April 2027 the regulations go entirely. After that there is no regulated low-user daily charge and the two labels stop describing anything in particular.

That does not make plans identical. If anything the spread widens, because the constraint that pushed them into two recognisable shapes is gone. It makes the annual kilowatt hour figure more important, not less, because it becomes the only way to compare two plans properly.

Our guide to the phase-out goes through what changes and when. The short version: find your annual usage now, and stop choosing on a label that is about to stop existing.

We compare 8 power companies and can show you what each offers at your address.

Low user vs standard user — common questions

Am I a low user or a standard user?

Add up the kilowatt hours on twelve months of bills. Under about 8,000 kWh a year and you are in low-user territory in most of New Zealand; the threshold is higher in some southern regions where homes need more heating. Above it, a standard-user plan is normally the better fit. It is a fact about your usage, not a choice you make at sign-up.

What is the difference between a low user and standard user plan?

Where the money sits. A low user plan has a regulated cap on the daily charge and recovers the cost through a higher rate per unit. A standard user plan has a higher daily charge and a lower unit rate. The same electricity, split differently between the fixed and variable halves of the bill.

What happens if I am on the wrong one?

You pay more than you need to, quietly, for as long as it goes unnoticed. A high-usage household on a low-user plan pays the higher unit rate on every kilowatt hour; a low-usage household on a standard plan pays a daily charge it never earns back. Neither shows up as an error on the bill.

Is the low user plan always cheaper?

Only below the crossover, and the crossover is roughly where the threshold sits. Below it the capped daily charge wins; above it the higher unit rate costs more than the daily charge saves. That is the whole design.

Are low user plans being phased out?

Yes. The low fixed charge regulations step the capped daily charge up each 1 April and are removed altogether in April 2027. After that the label stops meaning anything and plans are compared on total cost, which is what you should be doing anyway.

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.

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No 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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