From dodgy discounts to blatant greenwashing and wholesale price manipulation, Electric Kiwi has been calling out the crap in New Zealand’s energy market for several years. Why? Well, because we don’t just care about offering our customers good deals, we want to make things better for all Kiwis.

Being on the inside of the industry, we have a unique view of the dubious tactics employed by some retailers and see where things can be improved. That’s why we speak out like we do (or shout if people don’t listen the first time!). We’ve been doing it in energy for a while, and now we’re getting to know broadband, we’ll be doing it here, too.

Here’s a quick overview of the campaigns we’ve led over the years and things we’ve helped change for the better. We don’t just do it for attention, we do it because it’s the right thing to do. If you learn of any industry antics that are unfair or unreasonable, drop us a line and we will take a look.

Prompt payment discounts

Back in 2019, we started to shout from the rooftops about the wolf in sheep’s clothing that was prompt payment discounts. The problem was, retailers were basically charging people more than they needed to, so they could pretend to give them an awesome discount, up to 20-odd per cent we were seeing at the time. Electric Kiwi never did this because it stank.

Inflating prices to create the illusion of great savings was an incredibly cynical move on the part of some retailers, and inevitably saw the most vulnerable customers hit with large bills should they fail to pay on time. Thankfully our concerns cut through and by the end of that year, the government started to share our views, beginning the journey to the end of these types of excessive, hidden late payment penalties dressed up as discounts.

Customer saves and win backs

Another major bee in our bonnet over the years has been the grubby practice of customer ‘saves’ and win backs – basically when your old retailer suddenly conjures up a better deal to keep you after you’ve set the wheels in motion to switch. Not only was it a horribly cynical tactic to retain customers, it highlighted the loyalty tax that other customers were paying just to subsidise the savings of those who were the most ‘valuable’ to the retailer.

As a price-competitive retailer that attracts new customers from the incumbents, and others, we saw first hand how people were duped into staying with their old supplier, even when the new deal they were offered wasn’t as good as they could have got by switching but was just about enough to convince them to stay. How bad is that! It was an anti-competitive practice that favoured the big retailers and undermined the retail competition that consumers benefit from.

We campaigned in public and lobbied the industry authorities to understand our point of view on the subject over a two-year period and thankfully in 2020 the Electricity Authority came up with the goods, banning saves and win backs and setting in place new, fairer rules that allow retailers to compete for customers on a level playing field, while consumers can benefit from the competitive prices that healthy competition brings.

UTS complaint against gentailers

We’ve long called out New Zealand’s big ‘gentailers’ when we believe they’ve manipulated energy prices to their own benefit and argued that these businesses – especially Meridian – should be broken up to avoid the clear conflict of interest between their retail and wholesale obligations.

Our anger reached new heights in August 2021 when a power outage in parts of the country occurred because these gentailers failed to adequately meet the high seasonal demand that was predicted. We filed a ‘UTS’ (undesirable trading situation) complaint with the Electricity Authority alleging that Genesis and Contact Energy abused their market power and withheld generation in the run-up to the outage. Electricity spot prices soared that evening and the next morning and consumers have been left to foot the bill.

The fundamental issue was that Genesis was basing its decision on the power it needed to generate to supply its retail customers, and meet its contractual obligations with wholesale customers, rather than the needs of the whole market. Problem in a nutshell.

Meridian greenwashing ad

The only thing we hate as much as wholesale market manipulation is greenwashing. That’s exactly what Meridian was found guilty of by NZ’s advertising watchdog when the company tried to convince customers that they were buying renewable energy in a dodgy TV ad back in late 2020.

Not content with sitting back and letting them get away with this, we issued a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) explaining that – despite Merdian’s best efforts – the energy it sells is no greener than the energy sold by any other retailer, as the ad implied.

“Doing your bit for the environment just got easier,” Merdian had the nerve to claim in the ad. This simply conflated the company’s renewable generation assets with the power customers can expect to receive through the lines, which comes from all power sources. As we move to a greener, more sustainable energy future, it’s important that retailers are responsible in how they promote themselves and their products and this seriously fell short of what Kiwis should expect.

The ASA agreed with our complaint, and the ad was quickly ordered off air. Needless to say, we now watch every Meridian ad carefully.

Prehistoric broadband contracts

Now we’re getting to know broadband better, we’re ready to start calling out the BS contract terms and charges that some of the big telcos have been getting away with forever and are never challenged on. That’s going to change. We’re particularly aggrieved about the 30-day notice periods some providers insist upon when households notify them of their intention to leave. Why should they trouser an extra month’s fee when the customer is done with them? Let’s be clear, they do it to make things more difficult for customers to switch, and no doubt it puts people off. Electric Kiwi charges for broadband by the day, not the month, so you’ll only ever pay for what you need. It’s the fairer way of doing it.

Things like contracts, exit fees and expiring discounts are prehistoric stuff. We don’t and won’t lock anyone into contracts for our broadband or electricity products because we’re customers ourselves and we know they suck. We’d like to see all providers drop them – and we’re going to start shouting about it. Watch this space.

We’ll always stand up for what’s right

We don’t enjoy getting into fights (OK, maybe we do in a way). But we’ll always speak out if we see something dodge in the world of energy or broadband.

Unmasking is another of our favourite pastimes… like when we called out ‘Frank Energy’ for actually being Genesis in disguise. They failed to mention this on the Frank Energy site until we called them out about it, obviously. Pretending your tired old retail brand is actually a fun, easygoing trend-setter is about as cynical as it gets in this industry. We won’t let them do it.

We acknowledge that some of the issues we’ve campaigned about might actually be in our business interests (e.g., banning customer win backs) and we don’t pretend otherwise. But that’s not the main reason we do it. It’s a nice bonus, but first and foremost it’s about holding power to account and standing up for consumers.

You can run a successful business and do the right thing by people. These are not mutually exclusive ideas. In fact, in our experience, one leads to the other. That’s what we’re all about at Electric Kiwi.

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The post Making things better in energy and broadband appeared first on Kiwiland Times.

Electric Kiwi is not your typical power company, but we are a fairly typical bunch of Kiwis who come from all walks of life. It’s important to us that our business is representative of the country we live in – and one of our manifesto commitments is to create a workplace in which everyone feels free to be themselves.

We also operate in a highly tech-driven industry where we’re constantly innovating and problem-solving to make things better for our customers (and all Kiwis), especially in respect of the green energy transition and limiting the environmental impact of the essential service we provide… Basically, we’re a bunch of tech geeks who care about the planet and want a respectful and inclusive workplace.

In that spirit, we’re delighted to introduce you to Shahnaz Baldwin – recipient of the Electric Kiwi-AUT Women in STEM Scholarship.

Last year, we developed a partnership with the AUT Women in STEM community to help bridge the gap between study and employment, connecting STEM students with female role models and engaging them in workshops and talks. As part of this partnership, we wanted to provide an academic scholarship to a student looking to make their own way in the world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at a time when these fields are clearly so important for New Zealand’s future, including our path to net zero. Like AUT, we want to help ensure females have equitable access to education and great careers in these sectors, and this scholarship is one of the ways we’re doing this.

The scholarship was open to full time students undertaking a STEM-related bachelor’s degree at the university and applicants were invited to submit a personal statement that outlined their experience in STEM and their academic goals and career aspirations. Of all the applicants, the judging panel was particularly impressed with Shahnaz.

Shahnaz has an inspirational story and amazing ambition that truly resonated with the team at Electric Kiwi.

Shahnaz is a Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences (BCIS) student, majoring in Computational Intelligence. With a family history of military service, Shahnaz told us it’s been her dream to join the RNZAF in a STEM-related field since she was just 13. After graduating from school, she applied to enlist as a Specialist within the Intelligence and Communications sector, but her application was not successful. That only strengthened her determination, so she chose to further her experience and knowledge by applying for the BCIS degree at AUT, with the intention of re-applying for the RNZAF following her graduation – but this time in the hope of becoming an Officer in that sector.

Shahnaz identifies as a member of the rainbow community and holds a position on the Out@AUT executive board at AUT where she works as Secretary and STEM Outreach Officer. She’s also an AUT Student Ambassador and graduated participant in the Design and Creative Technologies Faculty Year 2 Women in the Leadership programme.

“Throughout all of these roles and opportunities, I have created the role and dialogue for intersectional outreach between multiple underrepresented communities in the STEM field (women and the LGBTQIA+ community) and assisted in organising and running outreach during the Big Gay Out and Semester 2 2021 Orientation Day,” Shahnaz told us.

“I have learned the hard way that you cannot be what you cannot see. If I want to see people like me in my dream industry – mixed-race, rainbow women in positions of power – I have to be the change I want to see,” Shahnaz said.

Outside of university she also participated in the 2018 RNZAF School to Skies programme where year 13 female students participated in seven days of STEM-related exercises and engagement with roles and personnel in the Air Force.

Because of her passion for the STEM industry and the fantastic support of underrepresented communities within it, we’re very proud to award the scholarship to Shahnaz.

“I want to prove to people like me that, no matter who you are, what you have experienced or what opportunities may not be readily available to you, you can achieve your goals and make an impact in an industry that doesn’t look like you. These industries need you, and you deserve to be there just as much as anyone else.”

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. Congratulations Shahnaz.

The post The amazing young STEM student we’re stoked to support appeared first on Kiwiland Times.

We may not take ourselves too seriously here at Electric Kiwi, but one thing we are serious about is our workplace
culture. It’s one of the reasons we jump out of bed in the morning, stoked to be coming to work. Come and take a
look inside our home away from home.

It’s hilarious when one of your workmates (usually Allan) bursts into meetings carrying their mat and squeezes under the
table and joins the meeting. Or when Bean races across the office chasing her ball. In most workplaces, the final straw
would be Roger’s bad breath or the need for you to accompany him on a toilet stop.

However, here at Electric Kiwi that’s pretty standard behaviour. Before you decide we stand out from the crowd for all
the wrong reasons, let us explain. Roger is our CEO Luke’s Golden Labrador. Allan is a long-haired Weimaraner who holds
the official title of HR manager and is the reigning NZ Office Dog of the year (an actual award). Bean is a Brindle
Staffy. All three of them, along with our other furry friends have made themselves quite at home in our office.

We like to think we do things a little differently than the average power company. Not only within our business
practices, but internally with our day-to-day working vibe. Starting with inviting our four-legged friends to join us in
the office. Dogs and their quirks have become an integral part of our cultural fabric and work family.

“Having dogs at work really keeps everyone on an even keel, it helps maintain perspective, no matter what, it’s hard
to feel stressed when a dog wanders over and sniffs or licks you.” Luke – CEO

Our in-house culture is something we work hard at and are proud of. The good-will we encourage internally is similar to
that of a generously pulled pint of lager. The frothy goodness flows over into how we treat our customers, and we
genuinely enjoy our interactions with you lot.

“It’s really a testament to the job we do as to how happy people are to have normal conversations with us on a
regular basis. We know a lot of our customers by first name, as they are frequently messaging us about stuff they
have seen or telling us how they are getting on with their Hour of Power.” Chris – Social Media Manager

Just like you, we are a business made up of “good eggs”. So it’s fitting that Electric Kiwi was born out of a
conversation between three of those eggs who were old high school friends from Whakatāne. Our CEO later came on board
over a beer and a firm handshake to run the show.

While leading the way with pretty flash technology capability, we stay true to old fashioned kiwi values. We’ve worked
out that us kiwis seem to function best after a good chat and a full tummy. So, we take gathering around a plate of food
and a cuppa pretty seriously.

Take a stroll through our office and you’ll notice an actual working kitchen. Not just a hot water zip to top up your
instant coffee, and a fridge for last nights leftovers. But, an oven and stove that are fired up a couple of times a
week by staff members, taking their turn baking or cooking to share over morning tea or lunch.

You can’t go wrong with a thickly buttered scone or cheerios paired with tom sauce, and food is always a surefire way to
keep the troops happy. Fortunately, eating delicious goodies seems to be a talent of ours. Each time we manage to cut
down the cost of electricity for 1000 customers (yay!) we celebrate with a slice of cake together.

Treating people with a bit of sweetness makes sense to us, and the goodness we share within our office carries over to
you, our customers.

“It’s pretty easy to see every day the impact our staff has on people’s lives because we are saving them real money
on an absolute essential service.” Luke – CEO

Small incentives keep life interesting here at EK. And although we’ll always have mad respect for Dolly Parton, ‘Nine to
Five’ doesn’t always ring true for us. We’ve embraced a hybrid working style with staff choosing a mix of working from
home and the office, as well as flexible hours.

“We aren’t a company that watches the clock, we all know what we have to do and we treat each other like adults.”
Luke – CEO

Forming the team into a solid scrum is something our CEO takes seriously. Luke is a safe pair of hands in team building,
honing his skills while coaching his son’s rugby team. On our pitch he leads by example, giving us the freedom to be
ourselves and reminding us to get a healthy work/life balance over the line.

“We work hard to create an environment and culture that values individuality and our differences, whilst also
creating a sense of belonging and togetherness. It’s living our values, demonstrating that we do care and we
understand that people have lives beyond work and work is not everything.” – Luke – CEO

This attitude is reflected in a new addition to our team’s work year – “Me Time Days”. Whether it’s about getting out in
nature, attending kids school sports or getting your life admin done, we now have five extra leave days a year to dip
into at short notice.

“We want to constantly improve things for our employees. When people feel like they can be themselves, continue to
learn and grow and belong to something bigger than themselves, it helps people feel that sense of purpose. There is
nothing worse than people not reaching their potential. All of these things help.” Sonya – Head of Culture and
Engagement

Helping is what we enjoy doing. So we promise, while indulging in the occasional freshly baked chocolate chippy
biscuits, we’ll remain focused on evolving the electricity industry into a more sustainable and socially responsible
future for you.

And if shaking up the industry for the greater good means allowing Bean, Roger, and Allan to be their true doggy selves
– we’re OK if they occasionally bark at Luke.

The post Dogs, cake and a solid scrum – Inside Electric Kiwi appeared first on Kiwiland Times.

We bet you had no idea that we were brewing a beer.

Yeah, that’s right. We’ve finally reached peak collaboration and teamed up with the best brewery in New Zealand (in our opinion), to create a summery-themed NZ India Pale Ale, just in time for Winter.

We know it’s an odd pairing, a brewery and a power company. It almost sounds like the start of a bad joke, and we’re the first people to laugh, but we’re also smacking our lips at the delicious triple-hopped and New Zealand-centric ale that was born out of a mutual respect between two independently Kiwi brands.

Who are Behemoth Brewing?

Behemoth is the brainchild of beer connoisseur Andrew Childs, who founded the company just over seven years ago and has since produced over 250 different beers, sold the length of New Zealand and across the ditch. The winner of countless awards, anyone who enjoys a good quality beer will know the brand and most likely drink his craft.

Why the Beer Collab?

Our office fridge has always been stocked with Behemoth beer, to be enjoyed when the office is buzzing on a Friday arvo. Out comes the cornhole, the cards or the connect four and the tops pop off the beers as the team settles in for a bit of a knock-off celebration.

It was from one of these moments, towards the end of 2020, that the idea to brew our own beer came about. After the year we all went through, we felt a strong sense of connection to our home, Aotearoa. We reached out to Andrew at Behemoth, and after some deliberation and brainstorming, breathed life into our brew. We simply wanted to create something that represented both our brands and our stories, that regular Kiwis could enjoy.

And from this, the Independent Power NZ IPA was born. A love child of two independent and kiwi-as brands – one power and one beer – came together to create something pretty damn chur.

So, what next?

We send the beer out into the ether, and Kiwis buy it to drink it. A delicious, simple beer made for people who enjoy a good frothy. Made with hops from Motueka, Moutere and Taiheke, it has hints of citrus and pine and is just an honest delicious Kiwi ale.

The Independent Power IPA can be purchased from all good retailers from March 19th, until stocks run dry! Available at most New Worlds, Pak ‘N Saves and Liquorlands for a limited time.

The post Independent Power Beer appeared first on Kiwiland Times.

He’s not just the guy with the impressive beard and smooth baritone voice, he’s also our boss. But Luke Blincoe isn’t cut from the same cloth as other CEO’s, and we reckon you’d enjoy getting to know him a bit better.

Q. You’ve got a pretty busy life – CEO of a company, family, dogs and a love of surfing – how do you manage to achieve this elusive life balance?

A. I could always do more, surfing especially! I do start getting a bit twitchy if I haven’t been in the water for a while. But our hybrid way of working at Electric Kiwi has been great. I try to work from home a couple of days a week and when I end up doing some long hours I try to make sure I make time to do stuff that’s important to me and my family, as well as making sure the Electric Kiwi family is healthy too.

Q. And what’s something you always make time for?

A. I coach and manage my son’s college rugby team, so I leave work early some days for that. Coaching them is almost the same as running a company. You start with a vision and agree on values – work out the things we don’t negotiate on, how we get the team behind it and what we want to achieve. So it’s actually using the same principles.

Q. Speaking of leading a team – how do you do that at Electric Kiwi?

A. People don’t get out of bed in the morning to improve shareholder returns, we all want to contribute to the world. Running a purpose driven company is critical to creating an environment and culture that values individuality and our differences, whilst creating a sense of belonging and togetherness.

Q. The other team out there are your customers, how do they fit in to your vision?

A. We’ve always focused on our culture and our customers.Authenticity and care are central to our operation. What you see is what you get with us. If you came in to the office and met the team we’d like to think it’s pretty much what you’d expect based on what you might have seen of us online or on TV. The caring bit is all about how we look after our customers our people and our environment.

Q. Have you had any feedback on your singing debut in the Electric Kiwi ad?

A. Yeah plenty, none of it good! Not that I particularly want a high profile, but recently I was asked for a selfie with a guy in Rotorua so he could show his family. I think it’s the beard. It’s quite funny. The key to it’s success is connecting with kiwi values in an authentic way by being prepared to laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously.

Q. It might be hard to compete with the heady heights of your new celebrity status, but where to next for Electric Kiwi?

A. To keep engaging our team and our customers. Most importantly to have fun doing it. We’ll keep taking the piss out of ourselves!

The post Luke Blincoe, not your typical CEO appeared first on Kiwiland Times.

“Making our customers happy is the reason we turn up to work” says Electric Kiwi CEO Luke Blincoe. “We are working hard to do better and better all the time. We have a small team, but we are all very driven to make a difference for our customers”

In the Consumer NZ survey, Electric Kiwi had 65% of its customers reporting that they were very satisfied.

“We are proud to get the award, but working hard to do even better next year”, says Luke.

Electric Kiwi is New Zealand’s fastest growing Electricity company and has just released a new smartphone app that allows customers to manage their accounts from their phones.

If you are not yet a customer, and you like the sound of guaranteed savings, no contracts and an hour of free off-peak power every day, you can Join Electric Kiwi now.

Here’s how it works

• We are not expecting this to be flash, just grab your phone and shoot it.
• You do not have to have any props or keep 100% to the script. Have some fun with it.
• Upload your video to our Facebook page (either directly or by sharing a YouTube or Vimeo link)
• Share the post with your friends and ask them to comment on that post. The comments contribute 50% to you winning!
• The winner gets a year’s free power (up to a value of $3,000)

Timeframes

• Entries must be in by 12th August 2018
• Comments will not be counted after 26th August 2018
• The winner will be announced around 31st August 2018

The rules

• No professionals. This is a competition for amateurs.
• Entry is open to NZ residents and citizens.
• You have to be a customer to claim the prize (you can join to do this).
• Videos must not be longer than 45 seconds.
• Your ad may not include defamatory content, offensive language, sexual content, discrimination against any individual or group.
• Please make sure you own the rights to any material you post. As a general rule if you didn’t make it don’t use it.
• We reserve the right to reject any ad in our sole discretion. Related to this, we should make it clear that we are the only people who can approve ads.
• Please do not get bots to comments on your post. Fake looking comments will lead to disqualification.

Hints on how to win

• Watch the ad and download the script
• You don’t need to keep to the script, but try to get the general idea across (maybe your farmer is a fisherman, maybe the kid is the adult and the adult is the kid – feel free to mix it up)
• Be funny and light hearted
• Shoot your video landscape
• You do not need to cover the whole ad if you don’t want to
• Get your friends to comment

How to upload your video

We ask that you upload your video to our Facebook page

Steps

1. Go to our Facebook page
2. Either paste the link from your YouTube video into the “Write a post” section OR
3. Press the Photo/Video button and upload your video directly

Supporting Material

Click here to download a zip file with some artwork/logos. Note that these are extra materials in case you want them.

How the points will work

• 100 points will go to the video with the most supporting comments
• Every other video will get their relative share of 100 points (e.g. if the highest number of comments was 200 and your video got 100 then you will get 50 points)
• Your video will get a rating out of 100 by Electric Kiwi staff
• The two scores are added together
• The video with the most points wins

If you have any other questions send us a message at info@electrickiwi.co.nz or send us a message on Facebook.

To find out we have partnered with Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and researcher Lindsay Neill. As part of a PhD study, Lindsay is investigating what New Zealanders believe identifies them as Kiwis.

This survey has now closed.

About the research

“To date research on Kiwi identity and Kiwiana has focused on the past”, says Neill.

The research will have two phases; the first will capture what people think about existing ideas about being Kiwi and the other will ask participants about new themes emerging in Kiwi identity.

“Most comes from the 1950s and 60s and reflects ‘the good old days’. This research will explore the views of contemporary New Zealanders most of whom have grown up with the global influence of the World Wide Web. Our society has also become increasingly multi-cultural, so it will be interesting to see what impact that has had and is having on Kiwi identity. For example, the beckoning cat commonly seen in many Asian owned retail outlets may make an appearance as an item reflecting Kiwi identity and the changing demographics of New Zealand. The will research will include opportunities for participants to tell their own stories of Kiwi-ness.”

The research ties into Neill’s PhD work that explores three migrant communities – Chinese, South American, and Pacific Island and what they think about Kiwi identity, as well as his extensive work related to pie carts and their relationship to Kiwiana.

At Electric Kiwi we think that part of being a good Kiwi is getting behind other Kiwis doing great things. Working with Lindsay and AUT fits with that. The research will help us better understand our customers and our country. We are fascinated, as Kiwis, to see the results.

Customers used to pay every month but now you can choose to pay monthly, fortnightly and even weekly to suit your lifestyle.

Any new customer who signs up with Electric Kiwi will default to a fortnightly direct debit from either your bank account or credit/debit card.

After you have received your first bill you will then have the flexibility to change how often you pay your bill and you can even choose the day of the week or month when the money leaves your account!

We’ve made it really simple so you can choose when you pay through your online account – check out how in this quick, step-by-step video:

If you need a hand along the way, simply drop us a line through email or live chat and our awesome online service team will get you sorted.

The post Choose when you pay – you asked and Electric Kiwi listened. appeared first on Kiwiland Times.

Smart (or digital) electricity meters had been around for a while (in major urban areas up to 90% of homes have one) but few power companies had taken up the challenge to do anything smart with them. We thought we could change that.

To kick things off, we built our IT systems from scratch, so we knew they’d be agile, super-efficient, and specific to our customers’ needs.

That was just the start. Now we’re using smart technology to help our customers save money (and time) every day – here’s three ways how:

1. Looking out for you

Your smart meter records your household’s power consumption every 30 minutes. We then make this data available within your account so you can analyse your usage and make more informed choices about your consumption.

2. Boosting your savings

This extra information on power consumption means we can also provide incentives for people to use power when it’s cheaper “off-peak” – times when the nation is using less power as a whole. So we established the free daily Hour of Power for every customer at a useful “off-peak” time, to help them boost their savings even more.

3. Awesome online service options

No one wants to wait on hold – or wait by the letterbox for their bill. Electric Kiwi customers have a personalised online account that holds all their billing and power use information down to the half-hour. Our Live Chat, email, social and call back options mean our team of friendly experts can sort our customers’ queries asap while they get on with their day.

The post 3 ways we’re using smart technology to save you money appeared first on Kiwiland Times.