Compare Power Companies in New Zealand at Canstar Blue. Flick, Powershop, Frank Energy, Ecotricity, Electric Kiwi, Globug, Meridian Energy, Mercury, Genesis Energy, Nova Energy, Contact and Pulse Energy were compared on Overall Satisfaction, Bill & Cost Clarity, Customer Service, Ease of Sign-up, Online Tools & Advice and Value for Money.
See our Ratings Methodology.
Flick Electric are switched on to Kiwi power consumers, who rate the power company No.1 for customer satisfaction.
Our review compares electricity providers on customer satisfaction, so you can discover what other Kiwis think about our compared electricity companies before you sign on with one of them. Think of it like asking hundreds of your closest mates which electricity provider they think is best!
Canstar Blue surveyed 3269 Kiwis who have an account with an electricity company and asked for their feedback on their power provider.
Respondents rate their satisfaction with their providers from zero to ten, where zero is extremely dissatisfied and ten is extremely satisfied. Brand satisfaction was rated by respondents on the following criteria:
The winning brand is the one that receives the highest Overall Satisfaction rating once all the scores from the Overall Satisfaction criteria are combined and averaged.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included, so not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The brands rated in this survey are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction.
Find more information on our Most Satisfied Customer methodology.
This is the second time in three years that Flick has won Canstar Blue’s Electricity award. And yet again, it wins by a clear margin, as the only electricity company on our awards table to earn a top 5-Star Overall Satisfaction rating from its customers. It’s the same rating Flick achieves across a further three categories, including in the all important fields of Value for Money and Customer Service. In total, Flick earns four 5-Star ratings, which is more than all the other 11 power companies on our grid combined!
Flick Electric is an independent power retailer that was founded in Wellington in 2014. It offers two plan options, with no fixed-term contracts or exit fees:
This plan’s for you if you typically use more power during off-peak times, or if you reckon you’re able to make the change. You have access to cheaper rates 76% of the week – from 11am to 5pm and 9pm to 7am on weekdays, and all weekend, from 12am Saturdays to 6.59am Mondays. By shifting your power-hungry jobs – such as charging your EV, doing a load of washing or running the dishwasher – to cheaper off-peak times, you can bank savings through cheaper power prices.
Off-peak times:
Flick’s Flat plan is perfect if you use most of your power during peak times (7am-9am and 5pm-9pm). The Flat plan has a price that stays the same, day and night. If you like to set and forget with a consistent price all day every day, this is the plan for you.
Flickin’ Best Plan Promise: every 90 days Flick reviews your power usage to check that you’re on the best plan for how you typically use power (and your wallet). And if you’re not on the best plan, they let you know.
And if you care about your carbon footprint, Flick’s Carbon Tracker allows you to make choices about using your power when generation is cleaner.
Apart from our award winner, Powershop is the only other electricity company in this year’s award ratings to earn multiple 5-Star ratings, for Online Tools & Advice and Ease of Sign-up. Across all the other categories, including Overall Satisfaction and Value for Money, it achieves great 4-Star ratings.
Powershop works a little differently from other electricity companies, which explains its great rating for Online Tools & Advice, which are central to its unique power offerings.
For in addition to allowing you to pay for your power each month like a regular power company, Powershop also has a prepay option, via a range of power packs that are available online, through the Powershop website and app. Many of the prepaid packs come with discounts. Packs on offer include:
Staying Power: A super-discounted special pack that is available once a month. The Staying Power discount starts off at 20% in your first year then increases by 1% each year you stay with Powershop, to a maximum of 25%.
Regular Specials: Available for a limited time each month. The Staying Power and the limited-time specials together contribute to your Special Rates.
Future Packs: Allow you to squirrel away power for the months to come. The further out you buy Future Packs, the bigger the discount. Buy six months ahead to save the maximum 10% against your Standard Rate for the month.
Fixed-price Value Packs: Have the smallest discount out of all the special packs, but come in a range of sizes.
Top-Up Packs: Allow you to buy a specific amount of power (to the nearest whole $) at your Standard Power rate, with no discount.
Standard Power Top-up Packs: Power priced at your standard rate.
Third on our awards table, Frank Energy distinguishes itself in our awards ratings by being just one of two electricity companies to score a clean sweep of 4-Star ratings across all categories. Frankly, it’s an excellent achievement!
Originally established in 1999 as Energy Online, the company was purchased by Genesis Energy in 2002 and rebranded as Frank in 2021.
Frank doesn’t offer any gimmicks or off-peak rates. Instead it concentrates on no-frills, cheap power across the two standard user tariffs: Low User & Standard User.
As with all NZ power companies, Frank’s electricity prices differ between regions. For more details about the prices for your address, head to the Frank website.
As the country’s only Toitū climate-positive certified electricity provider, Ecotricity is a great choice for those who care about the planet and their carbon footprint. In this year’s award ratings it earns the distinction of being one of only three power companies to earn a top 5-Star rating, which it achieves for Bill & Cost Clarity. Across all other categories it earns great 4-Star ratings.
Ecotricity is a provider of 100% renewable and carboNZero Certified electricity, which it sources from the Monowai, Roaring Meg and Teviot hydro dams; from the Flat Hill Wind Farm; and from its solar customers.
Ecotricity offers the option to go for a fixed rate of power, regardless of time or day. Or to choose a plan with peak and off-peak rates. All plans offer buy-back solar rates:
A former three-time winner of Canstar Blue’s electricity award, this year Electric Kiwi continues its record of strong performances by earning a clean sweep of 4-Star ratings across every category.
It’s worth noting that Electric Kiwi is the winner of Canstar Blue’s 2024 Bundled Utilities Award, for its great broadband + power deals. You can read more about our Most Satisfied Customers | Bundled Utilities Award here!
NOTE: Due to high wholesale costs, Electric Kiwi is not currently accepting new customers.
Electric Kiwi offers four power plans, all offering one free Hour of Power each day. All plans have time-of-use pricing, which allows you to take advantage of lower electricity rates during off-peak hours, and save money on your energy bills.
Globug earns 4 Stars for Overall Satisfaction, a rating it repeats across all categories, except for Bill & Cost Clarity and Ease of Sign-up, for which it earns 3 Stars.
A retail brand of Mercury, Globug is a prepaid power retailer. Globug offers simple pricing, with a fixed daily charge and a variable kWh charge. Plus, because it’s a prepaid provider, there are no contracts, bonds or credit checks involved. Consumers can check Globug’s pricing for standard user and low user plans via its website.
While Meridan’s brand Powershop earns a fantastic set of ratings from its customer, Meridian scores less highly. However, like Powershop, Meridian, too, earns a 4-Star rating for Overall Satisfaction, a rating it repeats in four of our six award rating categories.
The NZ government is the major shareholder in Meridian, which is one of the country’s biggest power generators and retailers. All of Meridian’s power is derived from 100% renewable energy sources. It has the following plans:
Mercury is one of the highest profile power companies in the market. Across the board, it earns a consistent set of 3-Star ratings. And while 3 Stars is not a top rating, it’s by no means a measure of dissatisfaction. Instead, it shows that Mercury’s customers are happy with the levels of service and support they receive as Mercury customers.
Mercury is 51% owned by the government and its generation comprises 100% renewable hydro and geothermal. Its plans break down into two bands:
Mercury offers a range of fibre and wireless broadband plans that can be bundled with electricity services for discounts and Samsung appliance offers, as well as multi-fuel and mobile phone bundle discounts.
Like Mercury, Genesis is a major gentailer of electricity that is 51% owned by the government. In this year’s award ratings, it earns 3-Star ratings across all categories, except for one: a 4-Star rating for Ease of Sign-up.
Genesis offers three residential energy plans:
Customers on Energy Plus and EV plans enjoy regular offers of free electricity that called Power Shouts. For customers who bundle electricity and gas (either bottled or piped), Genesis provides an additional 5% discount off each bill.
Nova Energy earns 3-Star ratings across all award categories.
Nova Energy is part of the Todd Corporation, which also operates its own geothermal and natural gas generators. Nova Energy offers electricity, broadband, mobile and gas, plus a range of discounts for bundled utilities. It has three basic plan structures:
ContactContact earns 3-Star ratings across all award categories.
Contact has a 25-year history built on a largely renewable portfolio of electricity generation assets. It owns and operates 11 power stations, and produces 80-85% of its electricity from renewable hydro and geothermal stations.
In addition to its broadband and gas bundles, it offers the following electricity plans:
Pulse Energy is a smaller community-owned energy company. It earns 3-Star ratings across all award categories.
Pulse Energy supplies electricity, gas, solar and broadband services to households and businesses throughout NZ.
Pulse offers:
Other electricity providersNot all electricity providers in the market qualify for our ratings (based on minimum survey sample size), but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. Here is another electricity provider to check out before making a decision:
Founded in 2015, Octopus Energy is a global power company. Based in London, it has operations in nine countries, including across Europe, America, Australia and, since 2022, in certain parts of Aotearoa. Octopus’ plans offer peak, off-peak and night rates for standard and low users, plus competitive solar buyback rates.
Electricity, whichever company you purchase it from, does the same job. The only real difference in supply is the cost. So it’s no surprise that Value for Money is the biggest driver of satisfaction for Kiwi energy consumers: cited by 41% of those in our survey.
And just as there are different levels of value for money delivered by retailers, there are also big differences in the customer service on offer, which is the second most important factor for consumers, cited by a quarter (21%) of respondents.
Overall, here’s what the consumers in our survey say are their most important considerations when rating their electricity providers:
Aside from using less power by, for example, purchasing more energy efficient appliances, there are three easy steps you can take to further reduce your power bill:
Whether you’re a low or standard user affects your power plan and how much you are charged for the energy your household consumes. This is because a power bill is made up of two key charges:
And the way these charges are implemented varies depending on whether you are a standard or a low user:
A standard user consumes relatively high amounts of electricity each month. As a result, power companies offer competitive variable usage rates. To balance this, they charge a higher fixed-rate daily charge.
Low users pay a much lower fixed-rate daily charge, but significantly higher prices for the power they use. This means that their fixed costs are much lower than those of a standard user. As long as they don’t use much power, their bills will be lower.
However, because most Kiwi homes are now low users, over the next five years the low-user electricity tariff is being phased out. As a consequence, if you’re on the low-user tariff, your power bills could have already started to rise.
This is because for each year of the five-year phase-out, power companies are able to increase their daily charges for low-users by around 30c, until they are on a par with standard-user charges. However, not all electricity companies are increasing their charges. While some retailers are still charging their low-users no daily tariffs others are charging up to $1.38 per day.
Of course, you need to balance the per kWh charge of each power plan when comparing the savings you can make from shopping around for the lowest daily charge, but there are big savings to be made.
Many power providers have off-peak power deals, offering cut-price or even free electricity. Off-peak times differ between plans and providers but, generally speaking, peak times are Monday to Friday, 7am-11am and 5pm-9pm. For example, here are the current different standard rates offered in Auckland by one electricity retailer:
As you can see, if you burn most of your electricity outside of peak times – or can easily move most of your power consumption to off-peak – there are big savings to be made.
NZ’s energy market is dominated by four big gentailers, which both generate electricity and sell it through their retail businesses:
However there are other smaller players, as listed above. To find the best deal, you’ll need to spend a few minutes researching prices on their websites. Plus, of course, refer to our customer research and awards into New Zealand’s best-loved power companies.
What does kWh stand for?A kWh stands for KiloWatt Hour, which is a unit of energy that measures how much electricity your home uses. Kilo means 1000, Watt is a measure of power and H stands for hour. Appliances are often described in terms of their wattage, that is, the power they require to run.
If you run a 1000W (1kW) appliance for one hour, then it will use 1kWh of electricity. If you run a 5kW air conditioner for one hour, then that will use 5kWh of electricity. One 100W light bulb, on the other hand, would take 10 hours to use 1kWh.
Your home’s electricity usage (in kWh) is recorded by your electricity meter and passed on to your retailer for billing. So, for example, if you’re paying the national average of 32.5c per kWh to run a 1000kW heater for one hour on its max setting it will cost you 32.5c.
If you haven’t got a smart meter, your energy company may estimate your usage between physical readings.
It’s common for people to confuse kW and kWh. The difference is that kW is a measurement of power, while a kWh is a measurement of energy. That might sound nit-picky, but it’s an important distinction.
For example, a 4kW solar panel system has a maximum power output of 4kW. If that output is sustained over an hour, then the solar system will produce 4kWh of electricity. If it maintains that output for four hours, then the system will produce 16kWh.
So if you are considering a solar system and want it to cover half of your home’s electricity usage (say, 10kWh), then you don’t need a 10kW solar system, rather, you should only need a 2-3kW system – subject to the weather. Another way to think about this is to imagine kW as speed and kWh as distance. The higher the speed (kW), the greater the distance you will cover (kWh).
This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.
Actively practise energy savings to reduce power bills: 71%
Rug up inside during winter rather than turn up heat: 49%
Worry about size of electricity bill: 45%
Use provider’s online tools to track energy usage: 45%
Energy efficiency is key factor in appliance purchases: 40%
Compared electricity prices over the past 12 months: 39%
Moved appliance usage to make use of cheaper/free power: 18%
Switched electricity providers in past 12 months: 13%
Canstar Blue surveyed 5046 New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from respondents who pay bills on an electricity account. In this case, 3269 New Zealanders. Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criterion.
The past winners from Canstar Blue’s Broadband ratings:
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