Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Confusion after new meters installed

By Abi Thomas
Northern Advocate·
5 Jun, 2015 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Alan Graf warns he had an inaccurate reading from his newly installed smart meter. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Alan Graf warns he had an inaccurate reading from his newly installed smart meter. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A Whangarei man hit with a $911 power bill two months after a Smart Meter was installed at his property is warning people to check their actual power usage themselves to avoid a similar fate.

Alan Graf and his partner are semi-retired, and had a smart meter installed at their Kamo home in March.

Smart meters are designed to electronically record more regular and accurate electricity use information.

But Mr Graf is wary of the new power technology.

"My partner and I bought a new smartphone recently, and it's even smarter than us. These smart meters are just dumb," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

His first bill from Mercury Energy after the meter was installed was $630, which he got reduced to $254 after contacting Mercury.

Smart meters went through a rigorous testing programm. Photo / File
Smart meters went through a rigorous testing programm. Photo / File

The following bill was for $530, then this week he was slapped with a $911 bill.

He said he was aware of at least five other people, from Three Mile Bush to Regent, who had had similarly inflated bills, from various power companies.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"If I know of five people who have been affected, there's obviously a few people who this is happening to," Mr Graf said.

One was a pensioner who was hit with a $400 bill in a month when she was away from her home for two weeks.

He said he had now got his issue sorted with Mercury and was very happy with their response, but wanted to warn people to not just trust their energy bill on face value.

"The chappie I dealt with was great ... [But] he said unfortunately they can't do anything about it [higher bills] unless they hear from people."

Mr Graf said people who paid their electricity bills by direct debit may not even know they could be being overcharged, and he urged people to read their meters.

Mercury Energy said they had received no customer complaints about smart meters, and the meters went through a rigorous testing programme.

A spokesperson said that customers in a small number of cases who were coming off old meters, with a billing combination of physical and estimate readings, could notice a change in billing after the smart meter installation as it gave a more accurate reading, where previous bills could have under-reported the customer's usage.

About 10 per cent of its 11,000 customers on the Northpower network now had smart meters. The company expects to have most of its Northland customers on smart meters by the end of the year.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

Bird experts at loggerheads over native parapara trees

12 May 12:00 AM
Northern Advocate

Council votes for independent review of Far North Sweetwater project

12 May 12:00 AM
Northern Advocate

Smooth recovery: Emergency services stood down after Whangārei plane crash

11 May 11:15 PM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

Bird experts at loggerheads over native parapara trees

Bird experts at loggerheads over native parapara trees

12 May 12:00 AM

Robert Webb advises removing parapara trees; Ian McLean suggests trimming flowers instead.

Council votes for independent review of Far North Sweetwater project

Council votes for independent review of Far North Sweetwater project

12 May 12:00 AM
Smooth recovery: Emergency services stood down after Whangārei plane crash

Smooth recovery: Emergency services stood down after Whangārei plane crash

11 May 11:15 PM
Final hours: get a special discounted subscription in our 6th birthday sale

Final hours: get a special discounted subscription in our 6th birthday sale

11 May 08:00 PM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP