Help

We're available in most major centres in NZ as long as you have a smart meter and are rolling out further nationwide in 2022/2023.

Please see Areas we supply for a coverage map that we will keep updated as we expand.

Yes, we do. You can download it from the App Store or Google Play by following the below links.

If you seem to be missing emails from us, check your Spam or Junk folders. If you spot our emails in there, add hello@octopusenergy.nz to your contacts, or go into one of the emails and select ‘not spam’, or a similar option on your email programme. That should do the trick!

If there is a particular email you are expecting from us but can’t find, such as a bill or password reset, try searching across all your emails for ‘Octopus Energy’.

You can check your current balance at any time on your online account. Or just wait for your next bill, it’s all there in black and white.

If you’d like to change to a different supplier, all you need to do is sign up to the new electricity retailer. They will take care of everything, including letting us know. We’ll then send you a final bill.

If you’re moving out of your home, and you want to close your Octopus account, send us an email or call us on 0800 947 867.

You can update your email, phone number, or personal pronoun on your online account Or email us. You can also use your online account to update your payment method or check your household power usage.

We need an email address to send our bills to, but if you want a separate billing address to show on your statement, we can sort that for you. Email us or call us on 0800 947 867.

You can’t add a second person when you sign up just now, but we can add a joint account holder for you. They will be jointly responsible for the account including paying the bills.

You can also authorise another person to make enquiries and operate your account on your behalf. They won’t be responsible for the account or paying the bills.

To add a joint account holder or appoint someone as an authorised person you’ll need to email us.

There are two main parts to your Octopus bill – a daily charge that covers the fixed costs of getting energy to your property, and a variable energy charge for the electricity you have used during the billing period.

The energy part of your bill is charged per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity you have used and will be split into different rates (e.g. peak, off-peak, night) depending on what time of day your electricity was used.

Your bill covers everything including the fee charged by your local distribution or lines company and others to get electricity to your house, a portion to cover the cost of our services, and a levy which goes to the Electricity Authority (EA) who regulate the electricity industry in NZ. Plus GST of course!

You can find out more about what goes into your electricity bill on the EA website.

We will typically bill you one calendar month after the date you sign up. We bill on data sent from your smart meter, so sometimes we have to wait a couple of days for that to show up before we can bill you.

Your smart meter allows us to break up your energy consumption into different time periods with different rates. This allows you to save more by changing your behaviour. Use less in peak periods, and more in off-peak or night periods.

One way you could do this is to set the dishwasher to go off at night, or setting your EV to charge from 11pm.

Electricity companies in Aotearoa are required by regulation to charge different rates for Low and Standard electricity usage. A Low User Plan is only available for your principal place of residence (i.e. where you live, not a holiday home or a shed).

Low users pay a lower daily supply charge and a higher charge per kWh (the unit we use to measure electricity). Standard users have a higher daily supply charge but a lower cost per kWh.

For most of the country, if you use less than 8000 kWh per year, you’ll be better off on the Low User plan, for those living in the lower South Island the threshold is 9000 kWh per year. If you use more than 8000 kWh per year (or 9000 for the lower South Island) you will pay less if you are on a Standard User Plan.

If you aren't too sure whether you’re a Low or Standard user, don't worry! Every three months we’ll check your usage to see if you’re on the right plan. If it looks like you’d be better off changing plans we’ll get in touch.

You can find out what the rates are for your property on our Get rates page. You don’t have to commit to anything when you check your rates - feel free to have a play.

You can see your rates on your bill, or you can check them in your online account.

Monday to Friday:

Saturday & Sunday:

Your smart meter tells us your energy consumption in 30 minute intervals throughout the day. We take those intervals and group them up into different time bands, each with their own pricing.

This depends on how your home is currently set up. Many houses with electric hot water have a ‘ripple relay’ or ‘load control device’. This is a device on your meter board which is switched off and on at different times by your lines company to give you a cheaper rate for your hot water, or to ease the load on the grid during times the electricity network is under strain.

Your old retailer may have just offered one rate based on your meter setup. At Octopus, we try to make the most out of the data your smart meter sends us, by giving you rates that vary in price throughout the day. These prices reflect that there are generally times of the day when electricity costs less to supply, and we try to pass this benefit on to you.

If you're having difficulty making a payment, it’s really important you reach out to us as soon as you can. We’re here to help.

If a payment is scheduled for a day that doesn’t suit, let us know and we’ll see how we can reschedule that payment or come up with a payment plan for you.

Need support or advice to manage your budget or to help with payments for your energy?

We want to make paying for your electricity ‘easy as’ for you. Once you’re signed up and you have entered those payment details, you’re done. No need for you to remember to send us a payment by the due date.

If you have left Octopus in credit (excluding any Solar credits), or you have overpaid your account, email us or call us on 0800 947 867.

You can make internet banking payments to your Octopus Energy account.

Our bank account details:

Any credit you have on your account will come off your next bill and remaining balance will be automatically be deducted from your default payment method.

It can take a few days for payments to show on your account, any payment received after we issue your statement will go towards your next month's invoice.

If you’re experiencing financial hardship, please let us know. We can refer you to organisations who can help, agree payment plans, or just give you some simple advice to help you save energy. Reach out to us at 0800 947 867.

If it’s a medical emergency, call 111 immediately.

If you haven’t already told us that you are medically dependent, email us, or give us a call on 0800 947 867. It’s really important we have this information on file for your safety. We need it to ensure we can let your local lines company know when they have planned outages, and let any field technicians know if they need to do work at your property.

Yes, you can! Just email us.

We hope so! We’re not in all network areas just yet (we’re working on that), but you can check if we can supply your new property by entering the address on our signup page or by calling us on 0800 947 867.

Just email us with the date you want to close your account or move out of your current property and we’ll arrange that for you.

We can arrange for your power to be reconnected, the cost of reconnecting your property will depend on the nature of the work the technician needs to complete. You can view our schedule of fees . Please contact us if you need your property reconnected, either via email or call 0800 947 867. If you have your power connected and want to sign up to Octopus there are no fees, just complete the online sign up process - we'd love to have you as a customer.

To offer you the best possible rates we can, we need to be able to split up your consumption throughout the day into different time bands. Only smart meters let us do this.

Easy, give us a call on 0800 947 867 with the details of the work you’re having done. Please ensure you have your electrician's number and details handy.

In short, because you don’t have to. We use data sent by your smart meter for billing, we don’t need anyone to physically read your meter. The data comes in 30 minute intervals allowing us to give you accurate data about your usage and sharper pricing.

No, we only use smart meter data for billing. In the rare event the smart meter stops communicating, we use estimated data. If you like, when this happens you can provide us with reads from your meter to help improve our estimation.

No, you must have a smart meter to be an Octopus customer. We need the half hour data smart meters send us for pricing and billing.

Your meter is read daily by a metering company. They perform checks on the data and then bundle up all the metering data for each retailer and send it over to us. This process typically takes 24-48 hrs, but sometimes can take a little longer.

Dashes mean ‘estimates’ are being used. It means we’ve had to fill in gaps in data that is provided to us with estimated usage. Gaps in your usage data can be due to events such as power outages, meter reception issues or metering company delays in delivery.

We estimate your usage based off your historic usage patterns, but we also track the total electricity consumption from your meter, like the odometer in your car. So we always make sure any estimates only fill the gaps, and don't go beyond the total "mileage" of the meter.

If your charts are all dashes or are missing usage data completely, then please give us a call or email so we can help resolve this. In some cases we may need to send a technician to repair the meter, however we will always discuss this with your first.

If you have recently switched to Octopus from another power company there can be a small delay (up to 5 days) for Octopus to start populating the usage data as the metering company processes your switch to us. 

If your usage data does not begin to show after 5 days, please give us a call or email so we can help resolve this. In some cases we may need to send a technician to repair the meter, however we will always discuss this with your first.

First, you need to sign up with us, we can’t connect the power for anyone that is not our customer. We’ll try to contact you to arrange for the power to be connected, but sometimes, we can’t tell if the power is on or off.

If we haven’t contacted you and you know the power is off, please give us a call on 0800 947 867.

Typically no, most of the time you’ll just switch to us, easy as. If the power is disconnected, we can arrange to remotely reconnect the power, or send a technician to your property to get your power on.

For your safety and to protect your property, it’s really important that you’re home when we connect the power. In fact, we won’t connect the power unless you’re home.

The process for arranging a safety disconnection varies from network to network. Sometimes your electrician will be able to arrange this on your behalf. You can find contact details for your local lines company on the Electricity Networks Association website.

Each lines company handles outages in their own way. View our outages page or call us on 0800 947 867 and we’ll send you to the right people. Remember to treat any downed lines as live.

We will let you know when we’re advised of a planned power outage. If you are medically dependent or vulnerable you will need a back-up plan (see next question).

If you’re medically dependent on electricity, it’s really important to have a back-up plan in case of a power outage. This could be an alternative power source, such as a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), a generator, or a plan to go to stay with friends or family, or your local hospital.

The power supplied to your property should be reasonably reliable and safe, however, sometimes there may be surges during storms or other emergencies. We recommend you protect the electrical equipment in your house with surge protection devices to help protect it from these events. You can get these at any electronics or appliance store.

We supply you the same electricity as all other retailers in New Zealand. This is a mix of whatever generation is currently being sent into the national grid. You can see the live mix of generation right now on the Transpower website.

Octopus Energy Group also invests in renewable energy projects internationally, as we’re committed to supporting the global climate challenge of moving to cleaner energy.

After attracting more than 3.5 million customers across nine countries, Octopus Energy is launching in New Zealand. Octopus makes it easy for you to access affordable power as we transition to a clean energy future, through market leading innovation and technology. Founded in the UK in 2016, Octopus Energy has built its global reputation on being an energy tech pioneer and delivering outstanding customer service.

Octopuses are a great evolutionary success story, having adapted to a vast array of challenging environments over millions of years. This uncanny ability to adapt was one of the reasons our backers, Octopus Investments – the UK's largest investor in solar power, responsible for nearly 40% of the nation's large scale solar generation – chose the name Octopus.

Whether it’s lowering carbon emissions to preserve the reefs they call home, or our World Octopus Day commitment to remove plastic from their habitat, having an ancient marine creature as a namesake helps remind us about why we do what we do. At the very core of Octopus’ Energy’s mission is a determination to push meaningful green change – to preserve our planet and all its inhabitants, however many arms and legs they have.