So how does Powercheck work?

We obtain your detailed electricity usage data from your retailer, analyze it against current market offers, and deliver a comparison report showing which plans would cost you the least based on your actual consumption patterns. You get access to the results through our web portal.

Power Switch and Billy are free tools funded by Consumer NZ and the Energy Authority repectively. We encourage you to use both tools to get the most information possible, and these are especially great if you have not been in your house all that long. They calculate your prices based on a profile of how they think you will use power from the information you give them (billy has based theirs from research on data from 27,000 unique households), but their estimate is not based from your actual detailed data. This means the profile of you they price from is unlikely to actually match what you really did - although they can get close. This matters most if your behaviour doesn't match the norm - Solar Systems, Electric Vehicles, Overnight use, Holiday homes, Off Peak majority usage are all examples of use that may be better not to rely on an estimate. At Powercheck, we calculate real prices based on your actual usage over the last 12-24 months to give you a real comparison - no estimates, no guesses, and we show our working so you can be confident in our results. We include solar too!

Free sites use estimates of when you use power, which makes them innaccurate for comparing time-of-use plans, solar buyback rates, or any pricing that varies by time of day. Many free sites (except billy.govt.nz which is 100% funded by the Electricity Authority) also earn commission from retailers and advertising, so they're not incentivized to recommend results or even display all the options that are in your best interest. We use your actual half-hourly consumption data, so you see what you would have actually paid—not what an 'average household' might pay.

Retailers must provide your data within 5 business days of our request. Once we receive it, we process the analysis and email you login details to view your comparison report. While we are in test phase we are unable to provide a guarantee of when we get back to you with your analysis, but we aim to get this back to you within a week of receiving your data.

Yes—that's specifically what we're built for. We can price out plans with peak/off-peak rates, free power hours, weekend pricing, solar buyback variations, and signup bonuses to show you the actual annual cost difference, not marketing hype.

You need a smart meter that records half-hourly usage data. Most homes installed or upgraded in the last 10 years have these. If you're unsure, we can confirm when you submit your request.

Go to our Register Now page, fill in the form and complete the purchase. We'll confirm and get back to you with yout results.

Go to our Register Now page, and find the 'get notified' form. Sign up and we'll keep you updated with any changes, and update you of when we launch out of test phase. And spread the word to friends and family to see how much of an impact an analysis like this can make for them!