Switch power company in New Zealand

Switching is the least dramatic thing you can do to a house. No one visits, nothing is dug up, and your supply is not interrupted for a second. What changes is the name on the bill and the rates on it.

What we can tell you before you decide

The table above is our own coverage: how many of the facts we track are actually verified for each company. It is there rather than hidden because a comparison that shows only what it knows looks complete and is not, and the filled cells are only worth believing if you can see the empty ones.

There is no rates column, because we have no verified rate files yet. That is the honest state of it, and it is why this page sends you to each company for a written quote rather than pretending to rank them by price.

The two checks worth doing first

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

Your annual kilowatt hours. It is on your bill. Without it you are comparing on the headline unit rate, which ignores the daily charge. The daily charge is what decides whether a plan suits a one-bedroom flat or a family with electric hot water. The two shapes are priced very differently and the wrong one costs real money.

What does not change when you switch

Your lines company. There is one physical network serving your street and one company that owns it, which is why distribution is regulated rather than competitive. Delivery is roughly a third to a half of a typical bill, it is identical whoever bills you, and no marketing changes it.

That is worth knowing precisely so you do not judge the exercise by the wrong number. Switching moves the retail half, and the retail half is where the difference between a good deal and a bad one lives.

Then what

Answer a few questions (where you are, roughly what you use, what your meter looks like) and we will show you the 8 companies we work with and what each of them offers at your address. Pick one, sign up, and they handle the rest.

If something goes wrong afterwards, complain to the retailer in writing first. If that does not resolve it, Utilities Disputes is the free, independent scheme for electricity and gas complaints in New Zealand.