Paul Fuge: Consumer NZ spokesperson on the number of Kiwis switching power companies

Kiwis are often told to look for the best deals on power, and they're not afraid to swap providers for a better price.

So who's winning and who's losing the battle for those customers?

Data from the Electricity Authority shows that Genesis Energy is the biggest loser here, with the company losing a net 35,015 customers in the year to June.

Nova lost 9059, Manawa 3329 and Mercury 2706.

On the opposite end, Contact gained 20,577, Electric Kiwi gained 11,590 and Meridian gained 10,288. 

Consumer NZ Paul Fuge says the energy market is quite volatile, and many companies have been making changes to keep up.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now there is new data out showing the number of
customers that the electricity retailers are losing and gaining. Genesis
Energy was the biggest loser according to the Electricity Authority
data hemorrhaging thirty five thousand customers in the year to June.
Contact was the biggest winner, gaining an extra twenty thousand customers.
Paul Fuse is the manager of power Switch for Consumer
New Zealand and with US Evening, Paul good Evening what

(00:21):
happened to Genesis, Well, the main.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thing with Genesis is they got rid of their subsidiary brand,
Frank Energy, which was kind of their budget budget brand,
very popular, you know, and a lot of customers went
happy with that and elected to move retailers at that point.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
And Contact why did it win so many?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
It got some pretty sharp offers in the market. What
you find with the market is it's quite volatile, and
so retailers will come in out of acquisition mode, you know,
as they procure ultricy on the wholesale market at good rates,
they'll seek to balance their books up by are in
customers in Contact went into acquisition mode with some pretty
sharp offers over the last year. But that's swinging around again.

(01:06):
Now in the last month, looking at power switch data,
we see Genesis coming back through. In fact, they were
the second highest with power switch switches in the last month.
So it does change around quite a bit depending on
where each retailer is at in terms of their you know,
their overall position in terms of what they're buying on
the wholesale market and what they can sell.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Now, something like four hundred and fifty thousand customers switched
in the last year. Does that kind of undermine that
narrative that there isn't that much competition in the electricity market.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
A lot of those will be what's called move and switches,
and that's that's where people move house. It's recorders of
switch even if you stay with the same customer. So
around it's around three quarters of switches will be moving
switches roughly. But yeah, but still we are seeing switching

(01:58):
picking up and we're asking some seeing some really positive
signs over the last month or so of competition heading up,
which is really positive. We've had a couple of years
now where you know, as you know that the wholesale
market has been very high, and that's that's made retailer
is a bit nervous around taking on too many new
customers too quickly. But what we've seen is wholesale market,

(02:19):
the prices are coming down quite a bit, and that's
making retailers sort of, you know, perk up a little bit,
and we start just starting to see signs of retailers
making some pretty sharp offers, which is really positive.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Hey did you see him? In the last week, I've
been getting a fair number of emails and text from
people who've had letters from Genesis Energy saying the discounts
are gone. Are you across this?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, no, I'm not across that in particular, but but yeah,
I think you know, retailers. I mean, the overarching messages
is retailers are changing their positions all the time, and
that's why it's important for customers to sort of shop
around quite a lot.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
But I would imagine, don't you think, Paul, that this
would precipitate quite a bit of movement as result. I'm
a customer of Genesis, I got the letter. I am
now going to go onto power Switch and have a
look if I'm on the best deal. And I'd imagine
quite a few people would do that, wouldn't they.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, surprisingly not The big challenge we have is customers
in general. Electricity customers are quite apathetic and disengaged and
mistrustful of the industry. And thirty percent of customers think
that all retailers charge about the same anyway, and that's
simply not true. But yeah, and that's you know, a

(03:29):
lot of gent tailors and retailers will trade off that
knowing that they can do things and customers will grumble
but not necessarily take action. And that's what we're trying
to change through power switches, to sort of get customers
to take action, because that's what will really drive electricity
prices down. If customers on mass start switching and changing
provider regularly, it'll make retailers really sharpen their pencil.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, okay, I'll do my bit for you. Paul Hey,
thank you very much. Appreciate it. Poulfuge Consumer New Zealand
power Switch Manager. For more from Heather Duplessyellendrive, listen live
to News Talks it B from four pm weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.