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
  • 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

Northlanders paid $11.5 million more for power in one year

By Imran Ali
Northern Advocate·
2 Dec, 2016 05:00 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

Northlanders are paying too much for power, say electricity watchdogs.

Northlanders are paying too much for power, say electricity watchdogs.

Northland households shelled out $11.5 million more for power than they needed to in the past year by not switching to the cheapest provider.

Figures from Consumer Powerswitch and the Electricity Authority show each household in the region on the most expensive plan overpaid for power by more than $400 in the year to October 2016.

The authority said the rate of switching power companies by Northland's residential power users during the one-year period was 16 per cent compared to the national average of 21 per cent.

If all the residential customers had switched to the cheapest provider, which was Nova, they would not have had to pay an additional $11.5m.

Whangarei mother Krystle Turdeich is one of those who has changed, switching three electricity suppliers in the last four months after moving to the district from Australia six months ago.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Initially, she was with Genesis and said her power bill was $689 a month so she switched to Contact and saved about $100.

"I am on the verge of having a bad credit record because I can't afford to keep paying high bills for power," the sales' consultant said.

Ms Turdeich is now with Powershop, the same company she had in Melbourne, and she is waiting for her first bill. She said power prices in Australia were about one-sixth of that in New Zealand.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Something needs to be done about the high power prices here because it's not fair on people.

"Even on those who are employed, because they get paid $15 to $19 an hour, and they struggle with the cost of electricity," she said.

There were 87,983 residential customers in Northland in the year to October 2016 and Genesis had the most customers with 12,912 and Electric Kiwi the least at 33.

Nova was the cheapest provider with an average household paying $2014 annually while Mercury was the most expensive, charging $2425.

In Whangarei and Kaipara, 9178 of the 56,620 households switched electricity providers during the one-year period while the number in the Far North district was 5111 out of 31,363 homes.

In the past year, Northlanders overpaid for power by more than $11m and New Zealand households by more than $300m.

Northland has some of the highest power prices in the country because of its distance from conventional power sources.

Meanwhile, a new electricity provider in Northland, which claims to be the cheapest, has challenged other small retailers to follow its lead and bring greater price competition in the region.

Powershop said its average annual price per household would be $2033.

"The region is dominated by large industry players which are typically more expensive than newer and smaller retailers. Households haven't had a lot of choice which is why switching rates are so low," Powershop's Mark Soper said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood

Northern Advocate

'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court

Northern Advocate

Invasive sea spurge found at Spirits Bay, threatening native plants


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood
Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood

Roddy Pihema saved a woman and her pets from rising floodwaters in Kawakawa.

16 Jul 06:00 AM
'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court
Northern Advocate

'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court

16 Jul 04:04 AM
Invasive sea spurge found at Spirits Bay, threatening native plants
Northern Advocate

Invasive sea spurge found at Spirits Bay, threatening native plants

16 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
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
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • 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