New Online Dashboard Shines A Light On Regional Power Prices

The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (Authority) has published a new retail price dashboard showing average monthly power bills by region across New Zealand. The Authority developed this dashboard, using pricing data it requires from retailers, to provide price transparency and encourage New Zealanders to get more engaged in choosing their power plan and provider.

Authority General Manager Retail and Consumer Andrew Millar explains: "We want to support New Zealand households and businesses to make more active, informed decisions about their power use and costs by providing them with better information.

"Greater retail price transparency will enable consumers to understand where their power use and costs sit against the average in their region. We hope the new dashboard will encourage people to compare their power use and costs against the averages and see if there’s an opportunity to reduce their power bill.

"We want New Zealanders to be empowered to switch their power plan or company if they believe they could be getting a better deal, either by calling their retailer and asking for other available plans or by using Powerswitch to compare retailers," Millar says.

The Authority sought price increase information from retailers in response to this year’s increased in lines charges. There are large regional differences in these increases, with average households seeing $10 per month increases and some rural regions facing increases of up to $25 per month. The Authority used its monitoring powers to require retailers to provide details of any planned price increases by region after 1 April, and ongoing monthly updates.

"We think it’s important to understand the impact these increased lines charges have had on power bills by region and to make this information publicly available," says Millar.

"It also important that if households and small businesses are concerned about the impact of higher prices that they get in touch with their retailer to discuss what support options are available to them."

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