October 2018 power switching stats released

October 2018 power switching stats released

15 November 2018

For immediate release

The latest monthly statistics show 38,870 New Zealand households changed electricity supplier during October.

“To put that into perspective, 2.1% (2 in every 100) out of around 1.8 million households decided to switch last month,” says Electricity Authority chief executive James Stevenson-Wallace. “That’s 6000 up on the previous month (32,868 household switches).”

“One reason for this will be high spring wholesale prices. About 1% of New Zealand households are on spot pricing plans that would directly expose them to the higher spot prices."

During October, 2041 residential consumers decided to switch from Flick Electric. Other retailers who lost around 1000 household accounts, when gains and losses are tallied for October, were Contact (1064 connections – known as ICPs) and Mercury (1548 ICPs). Meanwhile, Genesis lost 9191 household consumers during the month and gained 8464, which added up to a nett loss of 727.

Two retailers led the gains for household accounts in the month: Electric Kiwi (1491 ICPs) and Meridian Energy (1249 ICPs). Electric Kiwi is New Zealand’s eighth largest power retailer and Meridian is the fourth. Also, Vocus (1291 ICPs), Energy Club (708 ICPs) and Ecotricity (248 ICPs) experienced growth in most regions they operate in.

Overall, if commercial and industrial consumers are included along with residential users, the companies that got the most new accounts were: Electric Kiwi (1532 ICPs), Meridian Energy (1456 ICPs) and tenth largest retailer Vocus (1418 ICPs). The total for all consumers was 42,438 switches.

Canterbury was the most active switching region, with 2.3 per cent (6881 ICPs) of consumers across the residential, industrial and commercial markets changing supplier in October. Flick experienced the biggest loss (939 ICPs) there and Vocus gained the most (348 ICPs).

In Auckland, Meridian (553 ICPs), Electric Kiwi (420 ICPs) and Vocus (380 ICPs) gained the most consumers across all markets, and Mercury experienced the biggest loss (1261 ICPs).

Small and medium retailers now collectively service 12.25 per cent of the residential market.

The statistics show consumers from one of two companies who recently indicated they were exiting the market had started switching away: PowerDirect lost 213 ICPs across all markets in October.

The Electricity Authority publishes a wide range of industry statistics on its EMI website: emi.ea.govt.nz Retail reports including switching statistics are released after the tenth business day of each month.

The Electricity Authority is an independent Crown Entity that promotes a competitive, reliable and efficient electricity industry for the long-term benefit of consumers and New Zealand.

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