Now is the best time to check and change power plans, the head of a power bill comparison website says.
Electricity lines charges increase by as much as $20 a month from Wednesday, after an earlier Commerce Commission decision to allow for the charges to go up.
The head of Consumer's Powerswitch, Paul Fuge, told RNZ's Nine to Noon there were several changes to electricity pricing happening at once, including time of use changes, and the phase out of low user charges.
Fuge said for consumers, now is the best time to check power plans as the changes could mean they are no longer on the best plan for what they need.
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Fuge said there was likely to be a 5-10% increase in power prices this year which was bad news for households when there had already been increases of around 12% last year.
"What's important to stress here is there's no single price increase, what households will actually see on their power bill will vary a lot depending on where they live, which plan they're on and which retailer they're with. Some households will see a small increase, some will see a larger increase."
The variation comes from the fact there are about 28 different lines companies in New Zealand, and they all have their own lines charges, he said.
Fuge said they had run a scenario through the PowerSwitch tool for a typical New Zealand household.
"Mum, Dad, two kids, different parts of the country for a typical plan we picked the hot water control plan, that's fairly typical across the nation and that's a plan where the lines company can control your hot water for a slightly lower rate and what we saw there was the variance across the country in terms of the price increase was between 4% and 12%."
On average, that could mean about $200 more on your power bill across the entire year, he said. It was important to check because after the April 1 price increase, retailers that were previously cheaper may no longer be so, he said.
Household circumstances could also change, so those who were low power users may now, for example, be working from home more, be powering an EV or have a new baby, he said.
"So the plan you were previously on may have been really cheap but that may have changed. That may be because your household circumstances have changed, or the retailer have changed their pricing at a higher rate than their competitors or the plan you're on no longer suits your particular circumstances."
It was important for people to use a power checking tool to ensure they were not paying any more than they needed to, he said.
Commerce Commission associate commissioner Nathan Strong said price rises were not just coming from networks with about 40% coming from retailers passing on costs.
There was a 12% increase in power prices in 2025 and as of April 1 last year the amount lines companies could charge increased. The first step was predicted to be the biggest but there could still be changes year on year through to 2030.
Strong said the commission looked at the regulatory price path every five years and looked at the costs they expected the businesses to incur over the coming five years to run their businesses efficiently.
It was a balancing act, he said.
"We're kind of trying to hit the goldilocks point that the prices are not so high that the companies can earn excessive profits, but also not so low that they don't have the funds available to invest in their critical infrastructure."
Commerce Commission chairperson John Small earlier told Morning Report that while he believed the price increase was justified, he acknowledged it came at a terrible time.
He also said the monopoly, as well as the generation and retailing component, played a part.
"We are satisfied that the price increases are actually needed," Small told Morning Report. "They need to manage very efficiently, but they do need to keep investing in the capacity that they need to provide reliable service."
Small hoped that something like electricity suppliers being split into generators and retailers would happen.
"It's really important for us, with our competition hat on, to make sure that something a little bit like this happens, so that the generators are not favouring their own retail arm when they're selling electricity."
In the meantime, he suggested using a price comparison tool to shop around.
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