Lockdown: Expect your power bills to increase

Tuesday, 31 March 2020

New Zealand households can expect their power bills to increase by about $3 to $6 a week during the lockdown period, one power company says.

As people around the country shift to spending almost all their time at home, domestic power use is expected to rise.

In normal times, households are about a third of New Zealand's electricity demand. In the week before lockdown, nationwide power consumption increased by 0.6 per cent across all sectors.

Households typically pay more per kilowatt hour than business customers.

**READ MORE:

* Here's what should happen if you lose your power prompt payment discount

* Electricity reforms will 'take pressure off monthly power bill', Government promises

* Switching to LED lightbulbs saves at least $100 a year: EECA**

Paul Ford, spokesman for Contact Energy, said increased home power use would push up a typical bill by $3 to $6 a week as people used more lights, entertainment systems, heaters, fans and other gadgets.

'On average a Contact customer spends about $35 per week on electricity. This comprises: Appliances that are always on or unlikely to increase in consumption if you are home all day - appliances on standby, fridges, modems, hot water cylinders, washing machine, dryer; appliances that are discretionary in use - TVs, ovens, heaters, laptops, lights or more likely to increase in consumption if you are home all day; and fixed charges.

'A relatively small portion of the bill is on the discretionary stuff in a typical working week. With people being home all day, we are expecting electronics, kitchen appliances, plus the lights and heaters to stay on a bit longer.

'Of course this won't be true for everyone - lots of people will find they don't use much more than they usually do, especially if there's usually someone at home during the day. As it gets colder, bills will also start to rise as they usually would have with more heaters and dryers turning on.'

He said it cost about 2c an hour to watch TV, 1c to run a monitor, 12c for a heat pump, 18c for a dishwasher cycle, 81c for the dryer and 11c for the washing machine.

'So you could watch 40 hours of TV and spend as much on energy as you will from running the dryer once.'

Power companies said there should be little change in the rates charged.

Lisa Hannifin, Meridian's chief customer officer, said it had notified customers it would pass on a small increase of less than $1 a month before the outbreak, to ensure it could provide customers with the best possible service and support.

Trustpower said it would continue to pass on any previously notified price changes but was not looking to make any further changes. 'Trustpower has been proactively contacting our most vulnerable customers to check their wellbeing, removed data caps for our broadband customers, and taken a number of other proactive steps to ensure our customers facing hardship will continue to have the services and support that they need at this unprecedented time.'

Mercury general manager of retail and digital, Kevin Angland, said that before the Covid-19 outbreak, it had increased its headline rates for the first time in two years.

'However we also applied pricing changes for many customers that resulted in a total bill decreases. This was a result of passing on in full reductions in charges from line companies. For the remainder of this year thousands of Mercury customers will be paying less for their electricity due to the changes we made last month.'

The power companies said people could also see a change in power cost if they came to the end of a fixed-term deal.

A spokeswoman for the Energy Efficient and Conservation Authority's Energywise said people setting up a home office should opt for a small space that was cheap to heat, with good natural light.

'This could be a very good time to switch your lighting to LEDs, which you can buy at supermarkets.'

LEDs use up to 85 per cent less electricity than traditional incandescent light bulbs.

'Most LEDs cost less than $10 per bulb, some as little as $3. Each LED bulb you buy to replace an incandescent light bulb can save you between $100 and $300 over its life, depending on the wattage of the bulb you replace.'