Play the power game and win

Opinion

We’ve just switched energy providers at our place. I would have done it sooner but we were on a fixed contract (not my recommendation). Finally, we are free of it.

My partner used Consumer NZ’s free Powerswitch website to search for the cheapest plan. What he found jolted him into action.

By switching to a new, innovative retailer we will save more than $1000 a year. Yes, that’s $1000! (The fact that within minutes of hearing the news, in my head I had spent the savings on getting chairs recovered is for you and me to know.)

There are now 31 ‘‘retailer brands’’ across the country hawking electricity, up from 17 five years ago. We’ve gone with one of the newest and smallest. So far the experience has been seamless.

The industry regulator – the Electricity Authority (EA) – says 385,000 residential consumers switched retailers last year, a new high. Wellington, where we live, was the most aggressive region, with 24 per cent switching. Average savings were $175 a year per household. That’s not to be sniffed at.

We’ve been sceptical at Consumer NZ about promises of competition reining in prices. But, for the first time in 15 years, prices have stabilised.

However, our recent survey of customer satisfaction shows price is still cause for complaint in many households. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents in our national survey said their homes weren’t as warm as they’d like because they had to restrict power usage. Sixty-two per cent said they were concerned about their household energy costs.

Unsurprisingly, renters are much less likely than homeowners to think their home is easy to heat during winter and less likely to agree than homeowners they can heat their home comfortably for the price they pay.

A worrying trend in the EA figures was the increased number of people using pre-pay options – up from 31,000 to 43,500.

That’s an expensive way to consume electricity (though Community Service Card holders get discounts with Glo-Bug). It’s designed basically for people with poor credit histories.

On the bright side there are now no areas in the country without competing retailers.

And the newer brands are expanding all the time and offering new, more economical ways of keeping the dryer going!

There are companies offering a free hour of electricity each day (Electric Kiwi), exposure to the spot market (Consumer Trusted business Flick Electric offers serious discounts but with a risk of rapidly rising prices), online tools that do everything except make your bed, notifications when it’s cheaper to do your washing and turn on the dryer, and some have banned doorknocking (Genesis Energy and its subsidiary, Energy Online, have stopped the practice and we’d like more of them to do the same).

New Zealand has among the highest switching rates in the world. That’s partly because of government-sponsored campaigns encouraging people to do just that. So if you haven’t checked if you’re on the cheapest or best plan for a while, visit powerswitch.org.nz.

You could be in for a very pleasant surprise. I’m thinking blue and white coverings for the chairs . . .

Sue Chetwin is chief executive of Consumer NZ. For information on energy providers, as well as thousands of independent test results and research on a range of products and services, visit consumer.org.nz.