Electric Kiwi has made the decision to stop accepting new electricity customers due to extremely elevated wholesale energy prices. This also means that, for now, only existing customers can join broadband with Electric Kiwi.

Wholesale energy prices have increased by 73% in the past 6 months^* and current wholesale energy futures prices (these are the products that we buy in order to supply energy to our customers) have now reached a point where every new unhedged customer would be loss making for our business.

Obviously we are very disappointed. Electric Kiwi entered the market to make it better for Kiwis. Over the years we have saved Kiwi families millions, and brought heaps of innovations to market (from time-of-use plans, to the Hour of Power, the green meter and more). We’re gutted that we are now turning customers away.

What the hell is going on?

The wholesale market in NZ electricity has been a basket case for years. Wholesale prices have been steadily rising, and calls from us and others for market reform have fallen on deaf ears. In 2023 we raised a complaint with the Commerce Commission regarding misuse of market power in New Zealand energy markets.

The Commission agreed there was an issue but passed responsibility for resolution to the Electricity Authority who have the policy tools to quickly enact market reform. Commissioner John Small has stated^ “The wholesale electricity market is of real concern…we think it’ll be much faster [to work with the Electricity Authority] than dragging four or five big companies through the courts for three years and then be told that three years ago what you did was illegal. That doesn’t solve anything”.

Yet what has the Electricity Authority done to address this urgent problem? A year on and nothing has happened.

When we raised the complaint in 2023, the ASX baseload futures prices for calendar years 2024 and 2025 were around $165, this is now $298 and $277 respectively. If that is not evidence of something being properly stuffed, we are really not sure what is. And that’s before you take into account that during peak demand periods (mornings and evenings when we’re all using the most energy) prices can be multiples higher.

Below is a graph showing the wholesale prices since 2013. As you can see the upward trajectory is pretty full on and futures prices increased 17% just last week. And all of this is happening while the big four Gentailers (Mercury, Contact, Meridian and Genesis) make record profits. In FY22 they made $1.9bn, in FY23 they made $2.2bn and all indications are that they’re on track for even more massive profits in FY24.

^John Small, “Nine to Noon” interview by Kathryn Ryan, Radio New Zealand, July 24, 2024.

Chart shows the average annual baseload prices at the Otahuhu node (north island reference node). For the period Jan 2013 to June 2024 actual spot prices have been used and for the period July 2024 to Dec 2025 the current ASX futures price has been used (as at 15 July and 23 July 2024)

We are not the only ones screaming out for change. NZ is in a great position to provide green energy at reasonable prices for Kiwi households and businesses, which would encourage further investment in our economy and keep NZ the best place in the world to live.

A market controlled by a few players (the big four gentailers), who are highly incentivized to keep supply tight – and who hold all the power when it comes to providing energy during those critical peak times – is not going to get NZ where it needs to go.

In the end, these wholesale prices are passed through to Kiwi households and businesses. So we should all be pissed off, and we should all be demanding action.

So what’s next?

For the benefit of all Kiwis, something has to be done. We have informed both the Electricity Authority and the government on why we have taken this decision. And we hope this time that they have a mind to do something about it.

In the meanwhile, we will stay closed to new electricity customers.

FAQs

Why are you not accepting customers?

The wholesale price of energy, that is one of our biggest input costs, has reached a point where it is no longer commercially realistic to continue to acquire customers. For every existing customer we have, we have locked in some of our future input costs, but we need to keep buying forward contracts for those customers (to cover their future energy use), and these prices are extremely high.

If I am an existing Electric Kiwi customer, can I still move house?

Yes. If you are moving, you can do this via the app, or your online account. If you have a unique situation (e.g. you are moving, but a new person is taking the account), just jump on chat and we can sort this out for you.

Can existing customers still join broadband?

Yes. You can do this via your online account.

Can new customers join broadband?

No. At the moment we only allow people to join broadband if they have power. This is a technical restriction that we are planning to resolve. But for now that means that only existing customers can join broadband.

How long will this continue for?

It’s hard to say. At this point we are assuming it could be a month or more. But if things stay the same or get worse it could be longer. You never know, the government and the Electricity Authority might decide that it’s time to finally do something about the broken wholesale market?!

^*This refers to Calendar year 2025 futures price increases over the past 6 months.

The post Why is Electric Kiwi not taking new Electricity customers? appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

What do you mean by “peaky”?

The electricity market gets really peaky when there is a lot of demand for electricity stretching capacity to supply. This is when wholesale spot prices soar, and also when we tend to use more of that dirty generation (like coal).

Normal peaks occur in the morning (between 7 – 9am) when we’re all busy getting ready for our day, or in the evening (between 5 – 9pm) when we’re all back home cooking and doing whatever we need to do! When things get really peaky during these times then we have a Peaky Event.

How does Peaky Bank help?

At Electric Kiwi, we are all about loadshifting, as it reduces costs for our customers and helps reduce New Zealand’s emissions by reducing demand when it’s peaky so less coal and gas needs to be burned.

We believe that Kiwis deserve a seat at the table. Peaky Bank is your opportunity to help reduce those peaks when there’s a Peaky Event and be rewarded for doing so.

Key things to know:

1. Peaky Events will last for 1 – 3 hours and will very likely be during normal morning and evening peak times. They will most likely be during winter and early spring.
2. We will send customers Peaky Bank notifications by email and app when things are peaky – this will likely be the night before morning events or by lunchtime for evening events.
3. You can opt out of these notifications at any time.
4. Peaky Bank notifications will let you know the time and length of the peaky period.
5. To be eligible for the reward you need to opt in to each event.
6. If you choose to participate you will be paid $2/kWh for the electricity that you reduce (this will be calculated based on your normal usage using the method described below)

How do I maximise my rewards?

We don’t recommend that people sit in the dark or go cold. But there are simple things you can do to reduce your electricity usage for an hour or two.

1. Turn off lights in rooms you are not using.
2. Turn off heating in rooms you are not using.
3. Delay putting on the washing machine, dryer or dishwasher.
4. Delay charging things like phones, computers and cars.
5. Turn off stuff that you are not using (like the TV in the spare room).

FAQs

How do you figure out how much I reduced my power by?

We will take the half-hourly profile of your power usage over the past four weekdays, or four weekend days (if the Peaky Event is on a weekend). These four days will exclude any days which had a Peaky Event.

We will then calculate how much your profile changed during the Peaky Event and then calculate the energy saved in kWh based on your total energy usage on the day.

When will this happen?

Peaky Bank rewards are more likely to happen in the morning, and the evening and during the winter months. This is because this is when Kiwis use the most power.

When will my Peaky Bank credits hit my account?

We will run a process monthly to credit your account for all of the peaky bank rewards that you are due. Some months this may be for multiple events.

Are these events an emergency?

No. Only Transpower can issue warning notices about potential supply issues with the national grid. The national grid is very well managed, and while things get tight (and expensive) fairly often, this does not usually mean there is anything to worry about. However, it is possible that a Peaky Event coincides with a Transpower warning notice.

Either way, as a household you are not obligated to reduce or shift your load, as Transpower, the distribution networks, generators and very large electricity consumers are also doing their part to manage the risk. However, you still might want to take part to add to your Peaky Bank, help reduce emissions and just generally be helpful as every little bit counts!

Do I have to do this?

Nope. We know this is not for everyone. If you don’t want to participate you do not need to, and if you want to stop getting notifications you can opt out (we will provide this option on all of the email notifications, and then remove you from the list if you ask us to).

There might be the rare occasion when there is a genuine grid emergency. In this case we will notify you of this and post social media messages. You will also hear about it directly from Transpower and from trusted news media.

The post Introducing Peaky Bank appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

A talented hacker, Michael, integrated Electric Kiwi with Home Assistant. We asked him some questions about his project, so if you’re keen to know what inspired him to work on this project and how it benefits EK customers, read on!

Can you share a bit about your background in software development and how you became interested in home automation?

I have a degree in Computer Science from Otago. I’ve been in software development for about 10 years now. I’ve been working on mobile apps, small scale games, websites and complex integrations and systems. The main languages I’ve used are Javascript (and Typescript), C#, a bit of Kotlin and Java thrown in. No python though which is what Home Assistant is written in.

I started getting really interested in Home Automation when we moved home about 2 years ago and I wanted things like my lights and speakers to turn on automatically when I walked into my home office. Kids also leave things on a lot, like lights and so on, so I want them to turn off on their own. I’d discovered Home Assistant and started learning about all the things it could do. We’d also had solar installed so that further made me want to utilise the excess power better.

What inspired you to participate in the Electric Kiwi Juice Hackers campaign?

We’d recently moved house and power providers (to EK) and had solar installed. Our 1960s house is not very energy efficient so it’s very warm in summer and too cold in winter. The bedroom was one of the worst with next to no insulation in the roof; however, we have five heat pumps and the one in our bedroom was Wifi controllable, which means I could automate it. So a nice warm (or cool) room for an hour sounded like a great idea. I’d managed to set up the automation to go off manually, but of course what if I changed my Hour of Power? I’d then have to change all my automations too!

On top of this, I wanted everything to be easy for my wife to use if she wanted to change the hour. I knew other energy providers had APIs so off I went searching and found the Juice Hackers API, I was stoked!

How did you initially approach the project? Were there any specific problems you aimed to solve with your integration?

I’d never written a Home Assistant integration before and to be honest it’s really daunting. I joined the Home Assistant Discord channel to ask questions and also looked around to see if anyone was already working on it. I found an unofficial integration by Matt (one of EK’s founders) on Github but wasn’t really what I wanted to build and wasn’t a home assistant integration either. Some others had made minor attempts at an integration but didn’t get far. Once released I got a lot of “I was going to do this but didn’t have time” from others.

Can you walk us through the process of developing the integration? What were the biggest challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them?

I don’t write Python at all in my daily job so it was a huge learning curve! Learning python and Home Assistant at the same time!

When I discovered the API I also learned there was no Python API for the Juice Hackers API. With Home assistant integrations, you need to separate the interfaces (client) from the integrations. It took me at least three iterations to get an API client I was happy with and worked in a way that was easy to use. So I had to publish my first Python library which can be installed using pip (the python package manager).

I did this as I slowly learnt how to make a basic integration using sensors (displaying static data like account information)

I also wanted to publish my integration into Home Assistant – this takes a lot of time and patience, there are hundreds of pull requests that the developers go through so it took months before they were able to review my integration. However; fortunately, that didn’t prevent me from sharing a version others could use while I waited for that to get reviewed. Patience is hard!

I also got EK in touch with Nabu Casa (makers of Home Assistant) to better integrate signing users into the integration using home assistant cloud instead of users having to sign up for their own access keys. This was an interesting process on its own but made for a much better user experience.

How does this integration improve the everyday lives of Electric Kiwi customers using Home Assistant?

Customers can now set up automations around when their free Hour of Power is, whether that’s heating the spa or turning on the dishwasher or setting an alarm. The possibilities are only limited by one’s creativity.

So in short it helps customers save money on their power bill and manage their spending on power as they can also see their current account balance and bills.

They can also change their free Hour of Power using automations based on power use or manually using the selector so they can have this on custom dashboards instead of having to open the app.

Are there any future enhancements or additional features you’re planning to add to the integration?

I’ve been asked a few times to provide energy usage e.g daily, weekly etc. However due to how Home Assistant works and my limited knowledge, this is a bit harder than just exposing the data as the initial days data is usually an estimate and not accurate. Home assistant provides a really useful energy dashboard so getting this data in would be great, so is next on the list. This will allow users to use their energy data to better save money by learning about their energy usage.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of working on this project?

There are probably two rewards for me.

One is my own achievement of publishing both the EK Python API and EK Home Assistant Integration and solving the challenges that came along with it.

The other is the sense of achievement and satisfaction knowing I’ve helped other kiwis use their power better and give them their data to use as they wish.

Thanks to Michael’s work, Electric Kiwi customers can now do all sorts of cool stuff. They can set up their gadgets to turn on and off automatically, saving power and money. Michael’s also thinking about adding even more features, like showing how much energy you’re using each day. Keen to give your coding power a go? Visit our EK Juice Hackers website for more info!

The post Meet Our Electric Kiwi Juice Hacker appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

We’re all about making things better – and our Electric Kiwi app was long overdue for some TLC, so we’ve revamped the app to make your experience much better. Here’s what’s new!

You can now make a payment and update your payment method in the app

We heard you! You wanted the ability to make a manual payment in the Electric Kiwi App 2.0 (and be able to update your payment method) and it’s finally here. In the Account section of the app, there’s now a ‘Make a payment’ button – no need to jump on your laptop to top up your account.

We’ve upgraded the security of our platform

We’ve upgraded the underlying technology of our online account and app to a more modern and secure platform. Keeping up to date with the latest security upgrades helps us keep your data safe and sound!

Things are looking fresh!

Our visual style has evolved and we’ve updated the app’s design to reflect that. We take pride in our signature (in-house made!) artwork and design. As an added bonus, the new design allows us to make improvements and add new features much easier in the future. So we can keep serving up more of the stuff you love, even faster!

At this stage, the new app update will be optional. But as we will no longer maintain the old app, we’ll be retiring it shortly.

Once you’ve updated to the new app, you will be asked to login. If you’ve forgotten your password, don’t fret – you can easily reset it by clicking the ‘Forgot password?’ link. Remember: your password is the same for the online account and the app.

We’re working on even more new features in the app and we’re so excited to share them with you soon. In the meantime, if you need some help troubleshooting the app or have suggestions on how we can make it better, our team on live chat would be happy to help.

Electric Kiwi App 2.0 on the iOS App Store

Electric Kiwi App 2.0 on the Google Play Store

The post App 2.0 is here! appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

What kind of person appears in your head when you imagine a hacker? Are they male or female? In the movies, all the hackers were always male, and even now if you google ‘hacker’ a shadowy male figure comes up. I want to defy that stereotype. And then I want to normalise women going into that field.

Sarah Manikam, this year’s recipient of the Electric Kiwi-AUT Women in STEM Scholarship, is studying a cybersecurity major at AUT, with the goal of becoming a penetration tester, or an ‘ethical hacker’. In a highly male dominated industry, Sarah is determined to make a name for herself in the world of Cybersecurity.

Sarah had us at ‘ethical hacker’ – but what does it mean exactly? Simply put, instead of trying to break into systems for malicious purposes, ethical hackers are hired by organisations to find weaknesses in their computer systems, networks, or applications. They do this with permission from the owners, so that makes it totally legal… and ethical. As a digital and tech focussed company, we think it’s pretty rad!

In order to apply for the scholarship, which is available to full-time students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program related to STEM, applicants were asked to submit a personal statement outlining their background in STEM, academic goals, and career aspirations. Among a pool of high calibre applicants, the judging panel found Sarah to be exceptionally impressive.

A Bachelor of Computer and Informational Sciences student, Sarah has immersed herself in a variety of things which helped her develop the hard and soft skills needed to succeed in her chosen degree, a highly competitive field. Joining her first female-only ‘hackathon’ was her self-affirmation that she belongs in the tech industry. She’s also highly involved in AUT’s Women in STEM community, has volunteered for Computer Science 4 High School, and is an active member of many other uni clubs.

I love supporting other minorities. I love the surprise on people’s faces when I tell them I – a girl – am studying computer science. I love that my first hackathon, a female-only hackathon (She# AI Enviro Hackathon) had such a wonderful and uplifting community.

Being a well-rounded student is very important to her, as she wants to make the most out of the opportunities that support her as a woman in the STEM industry.

Technology is always evolving and will continue to change industries for a very long time. The skills that this degree teaches can be implemented in so many ways. Networks and Cybersecurity, my major, were my chosen specialties because there’s a growing demand for these skills. It’s a field where problem-solving and continuous learning is essential, and I can feel like I make a positive impact on other people’s lives.

Electric Kiwi is in an industry that heavily depends on technology and it’s really important to us that our company reflects diversity. In order to support women to succeed in STEM industries, Electric Kiwi have been collaborating with the AUT Women in STEM community over the last 2 years, focusing on connecting female STEM students with inspiring role models and organising workshops to help students transition from their studies to professional careers.

As part of this partnership, we have provided an annual academic scholarship to a student aspiring to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. These fields play a vital role in shaping New Zealand’s future, particularly as we strive towards achieving net zero emissions. Just like AUT, our goal is to ensure that women have equal access to education and rewarding careers in these sectors. This scholarship is one of the ways we are actively contributing to this goal.

We asked Sarah what’s next. She’s currently halfway through her degree and is already thinking about internships she could do to further hone her skills and get real life experience. “I’d love to get into cybersecurity after I graduate – but I’m pretty open to anything and I’m still experimenting with what I enjoy!” We’re very proud to be part of Sarah’s journey to becoming a successful woman in the STEM field. Congratulations Sarah and we wish you all the best in your career.

The post The STEM student we’re supporting this year appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

We also operate in a highly tech-driven industry where we’re constantly innovating and problem-solving to make things better for our customers (and all Kiwis), especially in respect of the green energy transition and limiting the environmental impact of the essential service we provide… Basically, we’re a bunch of tech geeks who care about the planet and want a respectful and inclusive workplace.

In that spirit, we’re delighted to introduce you to Shahnaz Baldwin – recipient of the Electric Kiwi-AUT Women in STEM Scholarship.

Last year, we developed a partnership with the AUT Women in STEM community to help bridge the gap between study and employment, connecting STEM students with female role models and engaging them in workshops and talks. As part of this partnership, we wanted to provide an academic scholarship to a student looking to make their own way in the world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at a time when these fields are clearly so important for New Zealand’s future, including our path to net zero. Like AUT, we want to help ensure females have equitable access to education and great careers in these sectors, and this scholarship is one of the ways we’re doing this.

The scholarship was open to full time students undertaking a STEM-related bachelor’s degree at the university and applicants were invited to submit a personal statement that outlined their experience in STEM and their academic goals and career aspirations. Of all the applicants, the judging panel was particularly impressed with Shahnaz.

Shahnaz has an inspirational story and amazing ambition that truly resonated with the team at Electric Kiwi.

Shahnaz is a Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences (BCIS) student, majoring in Computational Intelligence. With a family history of military service, Shahnaz told us it’s been her dream to join the RNZAF in a STEM-related field since she was just 13. After graduating from school, she applied to enlist as a Specialist within the Intelligence and Communications sector, but her application was not successful. That only strengthened her determination, so she chose to further her experience and knowledge by applying for the BCIS degree at AUT, with the intention of re-applying for the RNZAF following her graduation – but this time in the hope of becoming an Officer in that sector.

Shahnaz identifies as a member of the rainbow community and holds a position on the Out@AUT executive board at AUT where she works as Secretary and STEM Outreach Officer. She’s also an AUT Student Ambassador and graduated participant in the Design and Creative Technologies Faculty Year 2 Women in the Leadership programme.

“Throughout all of these roles and opportunities, I have created the role and dialogue for intersectional outreach between multiple underrepresented communities in the STEM field (women and the LGBTQIA+ community) and assisted in organising and running outreach during the Big Gay Out and Semester 2 2021 Orientation Day,” Shahnaz told us.

“I have learned the hard way that you cannot be what you cannot see. If I want to see people like me in my dream industry – mixed-race, rainbow women in positions of power – I have to be the change I want to see,” Shahnaz said.

Outside of university she also participated in the 2018 RNZAF School to Skies programme where year 13 female students participated in seven days of STEM-related exercises and engagement with roles and personnel in the Air Force.

Because of her passion for the STEM industry and the fantastic support of underrepresented communities within it, we’re very proud to award the scholarship to Shahnaz.

“I want to prove to people like me that, no matter who you are, what you have experienced or what opportunities may not be readily available to you, you can achieve your goals and make an impact in an industry that doesn’t look like you. These industries need you, and you deserve to be there just as much as anyone else.”

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. Congratulations Shahnaz.

The post The amazing young STEM student we’re stoked to support appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

It’s hilarious when one of your workmates (usually Allan) bursts into meetings carrying their mat and squeezes under the
table and joins the meeting. Or when Bean races across the office chasing her ball. In most workplaces, the final straw
would be Roger’s bad breath or the need for you to accompany him on a toilet stop.

However, here at Electric Kiwi that’s pretty standard behaviour. Before you decide we stand out from the crowd for all the wrong reasons, let us explain. Roger is our CEO Luke’s Golden Labrador. Allan is a long-haired Weimaraner who holds the official title of HR manager and is the reigning NZ Office Dog of the year (an actual award). Bean is a Brindle Staffy. All three of them, along with our other furry friends have made themselves quite at home in our office.

We like to think we do things a little differently than the average power company. Not only within our business
practices, but internally with our day-to-day working vibe. Starting with inviting our four-legged friends to join us in
the office. Dogs and their quirks have become an integral part of our cultural fabric and work family.

“Having dogs at work really keeps everyone on an even keel, it helps maintain perspective, no matter what, it’s hard
to feel stressed when a dog wanders over and sniffs or licks you.” Luke – CEO

Our in-house culture is something we work hard at and are proud of. The good-will we encourage internally is similar to
that of a generously pulled pint of lager. The frothy goodness flows over into how we treat our customers, and we
genuinely enjoy our interactions with you lot.

“It’s really a testament to the job we do as to how happy people are to have normal conversations with us on a
regular basis. We know a lot of our customers by first name, as they are frequently messaging us about stuff they
have seen or telling us how they are getting on with their Hour of Power.” Chris – Social Media Manager

Just like you, we are a business made up of “good eggs”. So it’s fitting that Electric Kiwi was born out of a
conversation between three of those eggs who were old high school friends from Whakatāne. Our CEO later came on board over a beer and a firm handshake to run the show.

While leading the way with pretty flash technology capability, we stay true to old fashioned kiwi values. We’ve worked
out that us kiwis seem to function best after a good chat and a full tummy. So, we take gathering around a plate of food
and a cuppa pretty seriously.

Take a stroll through our office and you’ll notice an actual working kitchen. Not just a hot water zip to top up your
instant coffee, and a fridge for last nights leftovers. But, an oven and stove that are fired up a couple of times a
week by staff members, taking their turn baking or cooking to share over morning tea or lunch.

You can’t go wrong with a thickly buttered scone or cheerios paired with tom sauce, and food is always a surefire way to
keep the troops happy. Fortunately, eating delicious goodies seems to be a talent of ours. Each time we manage to cut
down the cost of electricity for 1000 customers (yay!) we celebrate with a slice of cake together.

Treating people with a bit of sweetness makes sense to us, and the goodness we share within our office carries over to
you, our customers.

“It’s pretty easy to see every day the impact our staff has on people’s lives because we are saving them real money
on an absolute essential service.” Luke – CEO

Small incentives keep life interesting here at EK. And although we’ll always have mad respect for Dolly Parton, ‘Nine to
Five’ doesn’t always ring true for us. We’ve embraced a hybrid working style with staff choosing a mix of working from
home and the office, as well as flexible hours.

“We aren’t a company that watches the clock, we all know what we have to do and we treat each other like adults.”
Luke – CEO

Forming the team into a solid scrum is something our CEO takes seriously. Luke is a safe pair of hands in team building,
honing his skills while coaching his son’s rugby team. On our pitch he leads by example, giving us the freedom to be
ourselves and reminding us to get a healthy work/life balance over the line.

“We work hard to create an environment and culture that values individuality and our differences, whilst also
creating a sense of belonging and togetherness. It’s living our values, demonstrating that we do care and we
understand that people have lives beyond work and work is not everything.” – Luke – CEO

This attitude is reflected in a new addition to our team’s work year – “Me Time Days”. Whether it’s about getting out in
nature, attending kids school sports or getting your life admin done, we now have five extra leave days a year to dip
into at short notice.

“We want to constantly improve things for our employees. When people feel like they can be themselves, continue to
learn and grow and belong to something bigger than themselves, it helps people feel that sense of purpose. There is
nothing worse than people not reaching their potential. All of these things help.” Sonya – Head of Culture and
Engagement

Helping is what we enjoy doing. So we promise, while indulging in the occasional freshly baked chocolate chippy
biscuits, we’ll remain focused on evolving the electricity industry into a more sustainable and socially responsible
future for you.

And if shaking up the industry for the greater good means allowing Bean, Roger, and Allan to be their true doggy selves
– we’re OK if they occasionally bark at Luke.

The post Dogs, cake and a solid scrum – Inside Electric Kiwi appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

Yeah, that’s right. We’ve finally reached peak collaboration and teamed up with the best brewery in New Zealand (in our opinion), to create a summery-themed NZ India Pale Ale, just in time for Winter.

We know it’s an odd pairing, a brewery and a power company. It almost sounds like the start of a bad joke, and we’re the first people to laugh at this beer collab, but we’re also smacking our lips at the delicious triple-hopped and New Zealand-centric ale that was born out of a mutual respect between two independently Kiwi brands.

Who are Behemoth Brewing?

Behemoth is the brainchild of beer connoisseur Andrew Childs, who founded the company just over seven years ago and has since produced over 250 different beers, sold the length of New Zealand and across the ditch. The winner of countless awards, anyone who enjoys a good quality beer will know the brand and most likely drink his craft.

Why the Beer Collab?

Our office fridge has always been stocked with Behemoth beer, to be enjoyed when the office is buzzing on a Friday arvo. Out comes the cornhole, the cards or the connect four and the tops pop off the beers as the team settles in for a bit of a knock-off celebration.

It was from one of these moments, towards the end of 2020, that the idea to brew our own beer came about. After the year we all went through, we felt a strong sense of connection to our home, Aotearoa. We reached out to Andrew at Behemoth, and after some deliberation and brainstorming, breathed life into our brew. We simply wanted to create something that represented both our brands and our stories, that regular Kiwis could enjoy.

And from this, the Independent Power NZ IPA was born. A love child of two independent and kiwi-as brands – one power and one beer – came together to create something pretty damn chur.

So, what next?

We send the beer out into the ether, and Kiwis buy it to drink it. A delicious, simple beer made for people who enjoy a good frothy. Made with hops from Motueka, Moutere and Taiheke, it has hints of citrus and pine and is just an honest delicious Kiwi ale.

The Independent Power IPA can be purchased from all good retailers from March 19th, until stocks run dry! Available at most New Worlds, Pak ‘N Saves and Liquorlands for a limited time.

The post Independent Power Beer appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

Q. You’ve got a pretty busy life – CEO of a company, family, dogs and a love of surfing – how do you manage to achieve this elusive life balance?

A. I could always do more, surfing especially! I do start getting a bit twitchy if I haven’t been in the water for a while. But our hybrid way of working at Electric Kiwi has been great. I try to work from home a couple of days a week and when I end up doing some long hours I try to make sure I make time to do stuff that’s important to me and my family, as well as making sure the Electric Kiwi family is healthy too.

Q. And what’s something you always make time for?

A. I coach and manage my son’s college rugby team, so I leave work early some days for that. Coaching them is almost the same as running a company. You start with a vision and agree on values – work out the things we don’t negotiate on, how we get the team behind it and what we want to achieve. So it’s actually using the same principles.

Q. Speaking of leading a team – how do you do that at Electric Kiwi?

A. People don’t get out of bed in the morning to improve shareholder returns, we all want to contribute to the world. Running a purpose driven company is critical to creating an environment and culture that values individuality and our differences, whilst creating a sense of belonging and togetherness.

Q. The other team out there are your customers, how do they fit in to your vision?

A. We’ve always focused on our culture and our customers. Authenticity and care are central to our operation. What you see is what you get with us. If you came in to the office and met the team we’d like to think it’s pretty much what you’d expect based on what you might have seen of us online or on TV. The caring bit is all about how we look after our customers our people and our environment.

Q. Have you had any feedback on your singing debut in the Electric Kiwi ad?

A. Yeah plenty, none of it good! Not that I particularly want a high profile, but recently I was asked for a selfie with a guy in Rotorua so he could show his family. I think it’s the beard. It’s quite funny. The key to it’s success is connecting with kiwi values in an authentic way by being prepared to laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously.

Q. It might be hard to compete with the heady heights of your new celebrity status, but where to next for Electric Kiwi?

A. To keep engaging our team and our customers. Most importantly to have fun doing it. We’ll keep taking the piss out of ourselves!

The post Luke Blincoe, not your typical CEO appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.

Win-backs refer to when you decide to switch for a better deal, but then suddenly your old electricity retailer decides they love you after all and whip out an amazing deal to convince you not to leave. Sneaky aye? Why didn’t they love you before?

See, we think you should get the opportunity to choose between all the available plans, and that there shouldn’t be any secret plans that magically appear only when you decide to leave.

Imagine if your landlord charged you too much for years then when you go to move, they offered you a rent decrease to stay? You’d be gutted right? Why was I paying more before you would think? It’s the same house!

At Electric Kiwi, we believe in a fair deal for everyone, that’s why we publish all of our prices so our customers can see all the deals we offer. We have different plans, but they have different benefits, that’s fair, we don’t charge some people more and some less for exactly the same thing!

We are all for competition and innovation, and we totally understand that some people prefer different options, some might prefer different price plans, like paying in advance for a discount, committing to staying for an agreed term for a better rate or some might prefer the flexibility to leave the moment service doesn’t meet their expectations.

We think every price should have quid pro quo and should be published so that customers know their options all the time.

Transparency sucks said no one, ever right?

In the long term, there is an impact that we think is really unfair. You see, the losing retailer knows all about the customer that’s leaving, and they use that information to decide who gets what deal. This means that people who struggle to pay or have low usage might not ever get a winback, instead, their retailer will keep them on the highest rate they can until they leave.

As a result, according to EMI, there is a gap of $371 million dollars per year between the price kiwis pay and the best price in the market. We call this number a “loyalty tax” where loyal (or in reality less mobile consumers) pay more and subsidise those that switch or get offered better rates when they try.

We actually care about fairness, and we think that stinks.

Another impact in the long term is that it makes it really hard for competition – yeah like us – to thrive, because we end up competing and winning only the customers that the big guys let us have.

In NZ our market relies on the competition that retailers like us bring to the market, in order to keep the big guys honest. Without competition, there would be no win-back offers, and in fact, everyone would just get the rack rate the big guys advertise.

There are a few proof points we reckon are quite interesting. In telecommunications, winbacks do not occur because of the regulations. As a result, you will notice that for example prices for broadband are advertised in the media, because there are no secret prices, and there isn’t a big gap between the best rate and the rate most people are on. In general, if you pay less, it is because you use less, and that is much more fair.

Our advice?

If you switch to us or any other retailer and you receive a counter offer, only accept it if they agree to back date it to when you signed up with them because if they are offering you a better rate now, for the exact same plan, they have been ripping you off for ages.

The post Why winbacks aren’t actually good for consumers appeared first on Electric Kiwi Times.