Inter-church social justice advocacy group Common Grace Aotearoa is calling on Christians to help change Aotearoa New Zealand's regulations on power pricing so that everyone has the best chance to afford the electricity they need to stay warm and well.

Common Grace reports that for thousands of whānau across Aotearoa, this winter has been a real struggle to get by due to the high cost of living. And high power prices don't help.

"One reason people are struggling this winter is that historically, the Electricity Authority has not set strong enough rules for power companies, which allows them to leave customers paying higher prices than they need to."
Common Grace research has shown that electricity bills can be confusing and hard to compare, making it harder for people to work out if they could be paying less for the services they need.

In July last year Common Grace research came out that showed most companies wait for customers to ask, before telling them about any cheaper plans they offer. That can result in families paying more than they need to – with some having to sacrifice food and heating as a result. 

When that reality hit the news, the Common Grace-led "Everyone connected" 8K-strong community mobilised to ask the Electricity Authority to change the rules – and they listened.

Now the Electricity Authority has released proposals to require companies to:

• Check customers' plans every six months and tell them if they can offer a cheaper one.
• Stop charging break fees for switching to another plan with the same company.
• Make bills clearer and more consistent.
• Allow people to try out “time-of-use” plans (cheaper power in the evenings and weekends) and to switch back risk-free if it’s not cheaper.
• Stop charging large catch-up bills.

These proposals are great, but it’s not certain they will go ahead. The Electricity Authority is currently seeking feedback from the public, and it’s vital that hundreds of people express their support to persuade them to get the changes over the line.

These changes to regulation will give the Electricity Authority the capacity to call power companies to account when they driving struggling households into deeper hardship due to unnecessarily high rates and fees.

Common Grace is encouraging Christians and others who want to see fairer, clearer billing practices from electricity companies, to share their views in the survey below. 

Share your views with the Electricity Authority 

The survey takes 3-5 minutes. (You can simply click ‘yes’ for support in Questions 4 to 9. )

The deadline is 5pm on Wednesday 5 November.

For more information on the campaign for fairer practices from NZ electricity companies go to:
everyoneconnectednz.com