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 6 April 2026 we are changing our Low User Plan pricing to $1.80 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).

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 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. Wise Prepay 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.

Wise Prepay 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.

Wise Prepay’s residential 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.

Please note that all prices displayed exclude GST. In the price change communication we sent you, GST has also been excluded so that you can compare the figures accurately.

If you are struggling to keep up with your bill payments, with your consent, we can connect you with support agencies, who will help you with things like paying your bill.

Once contact is made, we will give you some time to talk to these agencies and receive help without disconnecting your electricity supply.

We will work with you and your support organisation as a partnership, making sure we all use agreed ways of communicating with each other.