New electricity tool for businesses

Sarah Gillies of the Electricity Authority this week announced that in March the electricity market regulator will launch a new power bill comparison website as the government’s first step in the move towards Open Electricity.  

The new website is the first step in a series of changes being made following last year’s government review of the electricity market, and aims to help households and small businesses to compare their electricity needs against every power plan on the market. 

Following huge hikes in power prices in 2024 attributed to supply issues, some businesses which relied heavily on power supply found it impossible to continue operating as margins were squeezed without warning.

In October 2025, Energy Minister Simon Watts said, "We need reliable backup options to generate electricity during our driest years, when we cannot rely on our hydro lakes or wind to generate the electricity we need to keep our economy running."

The New Zealand government’s diversification measures for backup electricity supply have included reinvestment in oil and gas, as well as stockpiling more reserves of coal at the Huntly power station. 

In an interesting contrast, Bill Edwards’ February 3 Global Business Update reported that, “In 2025, wind and solar produced more electrons for the EU than fossil fuels did, the first time that’s ever happened over the course of an entire year. Though wind still produces more power for the EU than solar does, it was the blistering growth of the latter that drove last year’s achievement. Last year, coal accounted for just 9.2% of the region’s electricity, and several EU nations have already phased it out entirely or committed to doing so before 2030.” [Original sources, Canary Media, January 30, 2026 and Ember European Electricity Review 2026].