Only two mainstream energy companies will check to see if you are on the cheapest plan this winter and tell you if you could be getting a better deal. Photo / 123RF
Despite soaring prices and growing energy hardship, most power companies won’t promise to put you on the cheapest deal. In part two of our Power to the People series, Raphael Franks finds out why
Only two mainstream energy companies will check to see if you are on the cheapest plan this winter and tell you if you could be getting a better deal.
One of them will no longer offer the deal because it has just been bought by one of the big players and the other is a prepay service.
You can use the Herald interactive graphic below to see which companies will do a best-plan check, which won’t, and their responses when asked why not, along with their answers to other questions about energy hardship.
Some companies said they checked best plans for customers in a different way - others claimed it was too hard to find the cheapest price for each customer.
Consumer NZ says nine out of 10 people could pay less for power if they changed plans or providers. So while prices have jumped and winter spikes our usage, advocates say power companies have a responsibility to ensure customers are getting the best deal.
And while Consumer runs its Powerswitch tool to compare prices and plans in the market, Powerswitch manager Paul Fuge told the Herald it should not be a customer’s responsibility to understand the market so they could decide on the best plan for themselves.
Consumer’s 2025 annual energy survey found 20% of people have had difficulty paying their power bill in the past year.
Statistics New Zealand data for June showed power prices had jumped 10.4% in a year.
And MBIE’s last energy hardship report in 2022 showed 110,000 households could not keep warm.
Fuge said many people were paying more than they needed to and would not even know they could get a better deal.
”Our concern is particularly for those who are unaware that they could be paying significantly less."
He said 93% of people who used Powerswitch found potential savings of $100 or more, and the average savings from switching was between $400 and $500 a year.
“For households already struggling, paying hundreds more than necessary for a basic service like electricity is something we should be working to change.”
Fuge said 12% of Powerswitch users had given feedback saying they had used the information from the comparison tool to negotiate a better deal with their existing retailer.
“That’s a great result. And it shows the opportunity is there, but the responsibility shouldn’t fall solely on consumers to seek it out. Regular plan checks should be standard practice across the industry, not the exception.”
Jake Lilley, from financial mentoring charity Fincap, said retailers had a responsibility because they were providing an essential service.
”Energy is an essential service, and there shouldn’t be that loyalty tax built into it.
“There’s also an information asymmetry that’s involved; providers should have a better overview of what’s likely to be the best plan.
“There are always some variables, but they should be helping their customers to get onto that plan or even potentially defaulting people to that best plan, because they have the ability to unilaterally change the price. Why don’t they apply savings rather than putting prices up?”
Fuge said people often did not realise their power companies were not proactively checking and informing them if they were on the best plan.
“We often find that many people assume their power company is already doing this for them. In reality, some retailers do it proactively, some only if asked. What really frustrates people is finding out—not only that they could save by switching providers—but that they could have been on a cheaper plan with their current provider."
The Herald has worked with advocacy group Common Grace to analyse each power company’s response to a list of questions on energy hardship.
Common Grace’s co-director Kate Day said the price check responses left her disappointed.
“Only two companies checked before winter. So Flick and [prepay service] Wise both said that they did check before winter for all their customers, and actually Flick had a practice of checking proactively every three months, which has been something they’ve promoted on their website.
“Among the other companies, there were some that do have at least a process of checking annually, that’s Genesis, Frank, Ecotricity and Toast.
‘But among the other companies, they never do this proactively, unless when they’re required under the Consumer Care Obligations to check for customers who directly ask them, or for people who are in hardship.
“In the context of rising prices and predictable increased hardship, a very basic step they can take is just to make sure that all their customers are definitely on the cheapest plan that they offer to prevent people from falling into debt, being overcharged, and becoming further entrenched in hardship.
“If companies really care and want to reduce harm this winter, that could have been something that they chose to do.”
However, the chief executive of the organisation representing generators and retailers said it was difficult to identify the best plan, and forcing companies to do so could just end up hurting customers.
“Finding the ‘right’ plan for a customer is not as simple as finding the cheapest option ‘today’,” Bridget Abernethy, chief executive of Electricity Retailers’ and Generators’ Association of New Zealand (Erganz), told the Herald.
“Many different plans are now available to consumers, making it difficult for retailers to predict the best option for each customer based solely on usage statistics. A household’s circumstances and behaviours will influence the best plan choice for that household, so the consumer often makes the best plan choices through engagement with a retailer or by using the Powerswitch tool.
“Retailers will always discuss the available plan options with customers who inquire, but price is not always the primary factor in plan selection.”
Abernethy said mandating retailers to move customers onto a cheaper plan automatically could lead to unintended consequences, like a customer suddenly being moved to a high-user plan.
“Customers may suddenly change from low to high electricity users due to a change in circumstances, or customers could end up paying more if they are switched to a time-of-use plan but didn’t shift their usage to outside of peak times,” she said.
Abernethy said the best way for retailers to make sure their customers were on the right plans was for those customers to call and discuss it.
She acknowledged it could be hard for people to understand their power bills, which was why the industry had invested in EnergyMate, an in-home coaching service to help people get the most out of electricity services.
Power company Flick, now owned by Meridian, checks every 90 days if its customers are on the best plan and will tell them if they could be on a better one.
These quarterly checks include looking at the times of day each customer typically uses power, and whether they would be better off on a ‘flat’ or ‘off-peak’ plan.
“This [Best Plan Promise] initiative is one we proudly offer to all our customers, and we would welcome more electricity retailers taking similar action in Aotearoa New Zealand,” Naz La Gamba, head of Flick Electric, told Common Grace and the Herald in March.
In May, Flick was sold to Meridian. It is not accepting new customers and its current customers will be transferred to Meridian.
When asked what would happen to the Best Plan Promise under new ownership, Meridian said, “all Flick plans end as soon as those customers are migrated to Meridian”.
Wise, which also did a best-plan check, said it would continue to do so and would make sure all its customers were on the most suitable plan for their usage before June 1.
Genesis said it, along with its subsidiaries Frank Energy and Ecotricity, did an annual check, and this was scheduled for August. The company said its customer service staff also reviewed accounts when customers phoned.
Contact said, “Customers can also track their usage on an hourly, daily or monthly basis through our customer app, EnergyIQ. They can also access a forecast on upcoming bills based on current usage, along with energy-saving tips, insights and weather forecasts.”
Meridian said it, and its subsidiary Powershop, would not check unless customers called to ask or a customer was in hardship.
Mercury said it wouldn’t, but it “endeavours to ensure that any customer who is receiving support from our Here to Help team is on the plan that best suits their energy usage and personal needs”.
Pulse Energy Alliance also wouldn’t, but said, “When engaging with our customers, we do check to make sure they are on the right plan for their home.
Pulse pointed to its recently launched Power Shift plan with half-price weekends and discounted rates.
Nova wouldn’t do a best-plan check, but said its support teams provided “a personalised approach when dealing with customers who contact us for advice or are experiencing payment difficulties”.
Electric Kiwi said its plans were “already deliberately simple”. Switch Utilities gave a similar answer, pointing to one plan for low users and another for standard users.
Electric Kiwi said: “Often the best prices can only be achieved by behaviour change. For example, our MoveMaster plan has very large incentives for off-peak usage, but could be the wrong plan for a customer who is not aware of, or able to access, the benefit from this. We also provide usage tracking and tools to help people choose what suits them best.”
And Switch said, “We ensure people are on the correct plan at sign up, and allow people to switch between low and standard as they need. Most people won’t need to change often or at all, unless their usage patterns change remarkably.”
Toast also pointed to its simple two-plan structure, but said it does check its customers’ usage once a year and when they are first signed onto a plan.
“We check in spring as this gives us a good lens to gauge last winter’s use [which effectively dominates the annual usage].
“As we have a very simple offering, we would want to be sure customers are either well under or well over the low/standard user threshold before recommending that they change plans.
Contact’s response echoed Abernethy’s: “To compare past energy use against current plans is not a one-size-fits-all approach”.
“Circumstances can change, such as a change of address, a new baby, a new job, or a change of numbers in the household. Our Time of Use plans give customers free energy in return for off-peak use.”
Fuge said energy providers had “all the necessary information” to check if their customers were on the best plan. He said there was little excuse for the majority of companies not doing it.
“They absolutely can – and they should. It shouldn’t be difficult at all,” he said.
“If Consumer NZ can do it through Powerswitch – often with less data than retailers have access to – then there’s no reason retailers can’t do the same.
“Providers have all the necessary information: their customers’ usage history and the details of their own plans. The capability is certainly there.”
And Fuge said that comparing a customer’s past usage to current usage was often just a distraction.
“What really matters is matching a customer’s usage pattern –whether past or present – to the pricing structure that offers them the best value. Most people’s electricity use doesn’t change dramatically month to month, and using that data to check whether they’re on the most cost-effective plan is both possible and reasonable.
“So yes, in our view, there’s little excuse. Retailers could and should be more proactive in helping customers avoid paying more than necessary. Relying on customers to navigate complex plans or monitor shifting tariffs on their own isn’t good enough, especially when many households are already under financial strain.”
Fuge said smart meter data, which captured usage on a half-hourly basis across the year, along with modern data analysis tools made it “entirely feasible” for retailers to do a best-plan check.
“This kind of analysis is well within the capabilities of all major electricity retailers,” he said.
“Genesis and Toast say they carry out annual reviews, and that’s a good thing. Toast’s reasoning– that winter usage dominates the annual profile – makes sense from a technical standpoint. Winter is generally the highest cost months for households, so analysis in spring would offer a full view of the previous winter’s consumption."
“Flick’s approach shows it’s entirely possible. The tools and data are there, and it’s well within the capabilities of all major electricity retailers to regularly review customer plans against usage and recommend better options.
Fuge noted Flick had the highest customer satisfaction score among retailers in Consumer’s most recent survey, data he said was unsurprising.
“It is a shame that the two retailers with the highest customer satisfaction scores – Flick and Frank Energy – have both announced they are leaving the market.“
And reacting to those providers who pointed to the simplicity of their plan structures, Fuge said this could be “an excuse for inaction”.
He added, ”It’s good that consumers have a choice – some value simplicity and may knowingly pay a little more for a straightforward, easy-to-understand plan. Others are quite happy to engage with more complex pricing structures if it means saving money.
“But simplicity shouldn’t be used as an excuse for inaction. Even among ‘simple’ plans, there can still be significant price differences depending on a customer’s usage pattern. Retailers have a responsibility to help customers understand those differences.”
Lilley, from Fincap, said if a retailer believed it was too difficult to check if a customer was on the best plan, it would be even more difficult for a customer to check themselves.
“It points to issues with the whole set-up of the market if an energy provider is feeling they can’t do that, because you can imagine then how hard it is to the average punter out there who’s trying to read an energy bill and make sense of it and make sense of what to do next.
“Energy retailers should be experts in these things and be able to help their customers rather than all of us having to be experts to engage with an essential service and get a fair price from it.
“People are juggling a whole lot, life is messy, and then having to constantly keep an eye on the price of your essential services - there’s another burden on people that they really shouldn’t have.”
Lilley said people should end up on the best plan by default.
“Even I, as a person working for a decade looking at energy affordability, struggle to navigate and find the exact best price for me. I can maybe get an idea of what’s reasonable.”
Monday: As Kiwis battle rising electricity bills, campaigners call for change
Tuesday: Could you get a cheaper plan for electricity? Most companies won’t tell
Wednesday: Major company moves to stop disconnecting customers in hardship
Thursday: Why our biggest power companies should be broken up (and why they shouldn’t)