Electricity and Natural Gas Price Change Information

Your energy rates are changing to reflect changes in the costs of supplying energy to you.

When we set our prices, we take into consideration all the components that make up your energy supply. These include the cost of the energy you use, third party transmission, distribution and metering company charges, our own service costs, and other regulatory costs.

Many of these costs have changed since we last reviewed them, so we have decided to change our pricing at this time.

The Government, with support from the electricity sector, is currently phasing out the Low Fixed Charge Tariff regulations over a 5-year period that started on 1 April 2022.

From 1 April 2025 we are changing our Low User Plan pricing to $1.50 per day (after the deduction of any applicable discounts and before GST) in line with the Regulation.

For more info on this change, visit MBIE’s website.

Generally, the Low User Plan this is the most suitable plan for your home if you use less than 8,000 kWh of electricity a year (or 9,000 kWh in parts of the lower South Island including Christchurch but excluding the West Coast). To find out more check, go to our Low and Standard User Plans information page here.

For the average customer, changes in our energy and business costs account for (approximately and on average) 57% of the total price change, while changes from third-party transmission and distribution (lines) companies make up 43%.

Please note: the quoted proportion varies by area, energy use and by customer type.

It is also important to note not all customers will see an increase in their pricing, and many will see an increase in one charge and a decrease in their other charge(s).

For more information and details about your price change, check your price change letter table page(s) or email us.

2025 is a price path ‘reset’ year for the local electricity distribution networks and national transmission system provider (Transpower). Your new pricing therefore reflects increases in the new 2025 revenue limits for Transpower and local distribution (lines) companies, which are set by the Commerce Commission. Most of the electricity distribution networks pricing applies from 1 April, with the Embedded Networks price changes applying from 1 May 2025.

According to the Commerce Commission, in the first year, these new revenue limits are forecasted to see average household electricity bills increase by around $10 per month on average. There are some large regional variances that see urban regions with smaller increases, and some rural regions with larger increases (up to around $25 per month).

Each individual electricity distribution (or lines) company’s pricing can be found on their respective companies’ respective websites. Your local lines company is displayed on each of your energy bills (underneath “electricity charges”).

Please note as each local network company sets different price points for a range of different customer connection categories, metering set-ups and time of usage (which Nova, like many retailers, amalgamates into a single ‘usage’ rate as outlined in the next Q&A below), the exact amount that third-party distribution company charges affect each customer’s specific pricing for their particular premises is highly variable.

If you would like more information about how these increased third-party distribution and transmission charges affect your new pricing, you can email us.

Your bill is generally made up of two main types of charges – Daily Charge/s and Variable (usage) Charges.

Your Daily Charge appears on your bill as a ‘cents per day’ (c/day) amount. Typically, it’s made up of a number of items including meter rental fees, overhead costs involved with our services including meter reading, billing etc., and, in most cases, a fixed fee charged by your network company.

Your Variable Charge(s) appears on your bill as a ‘cents per kWh’ amount (c/kWh). Variable charges cover the electricity or natural gas energy you use from us, and in most cases, a variable fee charged by your network company.

For most customers, the variable component applies anytime you use electricity. Nova amalgamates the multiple costs that can make up your energy supply at different times (in any 24-hour period) into a single ‘anytime’ rate to simplify our customer’s energy bills.

We currently do not offer complicated residential time-of-use pricing plans. We prefer straightforward pricing plans that offer our customers great value (but we may choose to offer these plans in the future).

The price you pay for electricity is made up of several different parts; including the cost of the electricity itself, transmission and distributing costs to get electricity to your property, through to maintaining and reading your meter and the service costs associated with managing your account.  

To better understand how these various costs break down on your bill, the Electricity Authority has some great information detailing what makes up an average electricity bill here.

According to the Electricity Authority, the average customer generation costs make up around 32% of their bill, Lines, or network company charges 27%, transmission 10.5%, Retail costs 13% and GST 13%. The remaining 4.5%, is made up of other costs like metering company charges and some wholesale market governance charges.

If you would like to see a breakdown of how your specific electricity bill is comprised, you can email us.

The price you pay for natural gas includes the cost the gas you use, transmission and distributing costs to get the natural gas to your property, NZ ETS carbon costs, and the costs of maintaining and reading your meter and the service costs of managing your account.  

Nova’s average residential natural gas customer’s bill comprises of :

• 37% - natural gas and carbon costs
• 33% - transmission and distribution costs
• 17% - Nova’s retail costs
• 13% - GST*

* Note: GST is 15% of the pre-GST cost but works out to be only 13% of the GST-inclusive or total bill amount).

The best person to answer this question is you. It all depends on what you value, your current consumption and future consumption.

A great place to start is to visit our website where you can review our available plan options. If you still have questions or would like to discuss your specific situation, please get in touch.

We offer a range of open term residential electricity and natural gas plans. Plus, if you have two or more eligible services with us at the same address, you could change to a Multisaver Plan.

Business customers can choose from a range of open term, Multisaver and Fixed Energy Plans by contacting our Business team.

Nova buys electricity from the wholesale market for our customers. The price of buying electricity from the wholesale market is calculated every half an hour and is affected by many factors including consumer demand, weather conditions and available supply.

While wholesale energy prices can fluctuate, high wholesale energy costs only affect customers who buy their energy directly from the wholesale market.

Nova’s residential and business customers are protected from wholesale price swings because we keep prices stable for our customers for long periods.

The price change coming into effect in April reflects our view latest view of the cost of energy that we supply to you, changes in transmission and distribution costs we pay to get energy to your property and our business costs.

No, any discounts or benefits you’re getting on your current plan will stay exactly the same, unless you request to change to another Plan.

The prices on your bill all exclude GST. We’ve excluded GST in the price change communication we’ve sent you, so you can compare it with what appears on the back of your bill.

Depending on when you receive your bill, you may see your new pricing on your first bill after 1 April (or 1 May if your property is in an Embedded Electricity Network). As your prices change, you may see two sets of charges; including charges at your old price, and charges at your new price.

There are a range of simple things you can do to reduce your energy bill. We have some useful energy saving tips that we think could make a big difference to your energy bill here.

If you have two or more eligible services with us at the same address, you could change to a Multisaver Plan if you are not already on one (noting Multisaver Plans are only available on an ‘opt in’ basis, as we require your consent to apply Multisaver Plans to your account).

We are committed to helping our customers as part of our Customer Care Policy. If you are having trouble paying your bill, please get in touch. Our team will treat you with respect and empathy.

We have a few tools that may assist, like changing the frequency of your bills or smoothing out payments over the year to help with budgeting.

We can also discuss the best plan options for your energy use, advise you on our payment plans, or put you in contact with social agencies who may be able to help, such as Work and Income New Zealand.

If your payment amounts need to change, we’ll be in touch to discuss this with you. If you would like to change your payments now, get in touch with our Credit Solutions Team.