Disputes about energy providers are up 27 percent on the previous year according to an official complaints service.
Utilities Disputes has received 4468 complaints in the past 12 months up about 1000 on the 2021-22 year.
Utilities Disputes is a free, independent service that resolves complaints about electricity, gas, water and broadband.
Its commissioner Mary Ollivier said the nature of the complaints had not changed much over the last few years.
Most of them were about billing, about 43 percent were about customer service, about 10 percent related to disconnections, about 8 percent were about supply which includes outrages and 4 percent were around switching companies, she said.
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The increase in numbers suggested more people were becoming aware of the Utilities Dispute service, she said.
"I think a lot of it's being driven by a change that the Electricity Authority did following that electricity price review in 2019 which recommended that utilities disputes had more prominence by the retailers.
"So from about the middle of 2021 all the retailers and the lines companies had to make our information really prominent on all of their relevant communications, so I think that's what's driven the higher number of actual inquiries but then the complaints are still going up, which is probably to be expected if you're getting more inquiries."
Ollivier would not reveal which companies received the most complaints.
"All of the big retailers will have complaints and most of them we will refer back to the company and they're able to resolve them."
The time taken to resolve a complaint varied, she said.
Sometimes a three-way call with the retailer, Utilities Dispute person and complainant could resolve the complaint straight away, she said.
"The next step is when we send it back to the retailer and give them 20 days to resolve it and then they can come back to us if they don't."
If the Utilities Dispute service accepted a complaint that was deadlocked it would depend how complex the dispute was in terms of how long it took to solve, she said.
Last night Checkpoint reported the stories of some Nau Mai Ra customers concerned their weekly power bills had in some cases tripled with no explanation. Some were also having trouble reaching customer services to sort it out.
The company told us it was working on doubling its team to deal with increased demand.
Ollivier said it was concerning if people could not get in touch with their power company.
But she said there were also some people who were afraid of engaging with their energy company, particularly if they were having difficulties paying their bill.
"The best thing we can give in advice is to just keep engaging because of a lot of the disconnections will be because the person's not engaging with the company to explain what their circumstances are."
Anyone who had a dispute could call Utilities Dispute on 0800 223340.
