Paying the power bill to keep the heater on is expected to get tougher this weekend. File photo. Photo: 123rf
Power companies coming up with innovative new offers are being asked not to forget about their lowest-income customers.
Providers are increasingly offering customers the opportunity to tailor their plans with things like time of use pricing, free off-peak power, control over hot water heating and opportunities for solar and electric vehicle use.
But not-for-profit Toast Electric chief executive Phil Squire said it needed to be remembered that there was no "free lunch".
"On a customer-wide basis, if your enabled middle class with time on their hands and solar on their roofs and EVs in the garage are making savings, then lower income households or those that can't shift power will be wearing those costs. "
He said his concern was the industry was "excited and incentivised" to chase high value, low-cost-to-serve customers.
"We've got some big price rises coming through from April 1, that's going to have a significant impact on all households across New Zealand - 10 percent on average is where we expect things to land, depending on the region you're in."
He said people who did not have the ability to negotiate, maybe did not have English as their first language, or good credit, could be left out as the industry transitioned.
"In the short term, if we enable some folks to chase the deals and they're able to negotiate and realise lower prices per kilowatt hour, then you have to say folks who don't chase it will end up with a higher cost. It's logic.
"Over time with any market if people are accessing the best prices, those who don't have the ability or don't pay attention will end up with higher prices."
Paul Fuge, general manager of Consumer NZ's Powerswitch, said people with poor credit often were required to be on prepay plans and did not have access to new offers that might allow them to save money by shifting their power usage. "Sometimes their metering might not be set up for it."
He said even for people who could access the plans, they did not guarantee savings. People with large families who could not change when they used power could end up paying more. "It doesn't suit every household. If you can't do the thing that makes it cheaper - take advantage of a low-cost time of day or free power times, you could pay more. That does happen."
He said some people thought they would be able to shift more power usage than they really could, or started well and then shifted back.
"If you're a household with electric hot water, an EV, that sort of thing that you can shift off peak the potential [to save] is a lot higher."
Kate Day, Common Grace Aotearoa co-director Kate Day said a group of organisations including FinCap, Child Poverty Action Group and Consumer NZ had written to the chief executives of all electricity retailers asking them to be proactive and compassionate with customers as the price increases hit.
"We're asking companies to proactively check that all customers are on the cheapest plan for their energy use, and to automatically apply savings if they offer a cheaper plan. This is a reasonable step to avoid over-billing. So we're asking companies - are all your customers on the right plan? When was the last time you checked?"
She said they were also being asked to do everything they could to avoid disconnecting people.
Consumer NZ was particularly concerned about prepay prices and was asking power firms to ensure that prepay was no more expensive than standard plans.
Day said some companies already checked customer prices occasionally but others relied on people ringing to ask.
"Given prices are rising people may be under pressure that should be a proactive step everyone takes."
She said companies were also asked not to charge disconnection fees. "People are disconnected because they can't afford to pay, so they're hit with a fee for disconnection, and an additional fee to reconnect, we feel that's fundamentally unfair. They're already in debt, they've proven they're unable to pay to then put additional fees on top of that… we're asking all companies to act in good faith leading up to this particularly hard winter."
Power companies recently produced a resource to help people struggling to pay their bills.
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