Your business power contract is ending: what to check before you renew

Start about three months before your contract's end date: enough time to find your notice period, pull your usage data and line up comparable offers before the contract decides the next step for you.

Renewal is when your price resets, and recent increases have not landed evenly. Between 1 November 2025 and 30 June 2026, about 34% of small businesses saw no change in their power price, while those that did saw bills rise by 7.2% on average, according to the Electricity Authority's August 2026 data.

When does your business power contract actually end?

Your end date and notice terms sit in your supply agreement or sign-up confirmation, so start with that document.

Look for three things:

• The end date of your fixed term, if you have one.
• The notice clause: how many days' notice either side must give, and whether it has to be in writing.
• The renewal clause: whether the contract renews automatically, and on what terms.

Diary the end date and the last day to give notice. With several sites, list each ICP separately: each can have its own end date.

What rate applies if your contract rolls over?

It depends on your contract's expiry clause, so ask your retailer, in writing, what rate you will pay from the day after your end date.

That rate might be a new fixed term, or a variable rate the retailer can change later. Treat it as one offer to compare, not the default.

On a spot-linked plan, your energy price follows the wholesale market directly, and that market swings hard. In the two years from October 2024 to September 2026, the national monthly average spot price ranged from $3.31/MWh (January 2026) to $326.09/MWh (April 2025). A retailer's standard variable rate is set by the retailer rather than the spot market, but it can still change on the terms your contract allows.

Source: Electricity Authority, EMI wholesale price trends, national monthly simple average; selected months. Wholesale energy is only part of your bill. A fixed price moves this risk onto the retailer for the term; a spot-linked plan leaves it with you.

How do you compare offers on your own ICP and usage?

Compare offers on your actual connection and usage, not a headline cents-per-kWh rate.

Find your ICP details

Start with your ICP (installation control point), the unique code for your connection, printed on your power bill. The Electricity Authority's "Your meter" address lookup shows the details that shape your price:

• Network: which lines company your site connects to (our regional hubs list them area by area).
• Distributor price category code: which of that lines company's tariffs applies to your site.
• Metering installation category: a rating from 1 to 5 that indicates your metering capacity.
• Direct billed status: whether your retailer or your lines company bills you for lines charges.

Get your usage data

Under Electricity Authority rules, your power company must give you up to two years of consumption data no later than five business days after your request, at the most detailed level it has used for your account: monthly, daily or half-hourly. You can authorise an agent to request it for you.

Price every offer on the same data

Price every offer on 12 months of that data, seasonal peaks included, and compare total annual cost across energy, daily, lines and metering charges. For a quick first estimate, try the savings calculator.

Fixed-term or variable: which suits your business?

A fixed term buys price certainty on your energy rate for the term; a variable or spot-linked rate can change during it.

Forward prices feed into contract pricing: the Electricity Authority notes that futures prices "are used by participants to make investment decisions and when negotiating prices for energy contracts". Those prices shift even in normal trading: using 2025 closing prices, the Authority found futures prices changed by an average of 2.3% day to day and 6.3% over seven days. That is enough to make quotes gathered weeks apart hard to compare. So:

• Collect quotes at the same time, so every offer is priced on the same market.
• Check how long each quote stays open, and have your data and decision-maker ready before you ask.

Fixed suits thin margins and usage you can't shift; variable or a shorter term suits a business that can absorb price movement for flexibility.

Which charges does a fixed price actually lock in?

Often less than the headline suggests: a fixed energy rate does not always fix your lines charges, which your lines company sets and can change.

Why lines charges matter at renewal

The Commerce Commission's current guidance says distribution and transmission make up "just over 30%" of the average power bill. The Electricity Authority found that higher lines charges made up 54% of the price increases between 1 November 2025 and 30 June 2026.

They are still climbing. In November 2024 the Commerce Commission set maximum allowable revenue of $11.5 billion for the 16 local lines companies under its revenue limits, and $5.9 billion for Transpower, for the five years from 1 April 2025. Consumer-owned lines companies are not under those limits. The Commission's guidance says these costs are "likely to keep rising until at least 2030".

For example, Vector, an Auckland lines company, raised its ICP-based line charges (excluding transmission) by a weighted average of 7.8% from 1 April 2026, and notes that your retailer "will determine how they pass our line charges and Transpower costs through to you". That is set in your contract, so ask.

Who sets each part of your bill

What exit fees and price-change clauses should you look for?

Read four clauses before you sign: early termination, price variation, pass-through and renewal.

• Early termination. How the fee is calculated, and whether it applies if you sell or move.
• Price variation. What lets the retailer change your price mid-term, the notice you get, and whether you can then leave without a fee.
• Pass-through and change in law. Which cost changes can be passed on, and whether they show separately on your bill.
• Renewal. Whether it renews automatically, and what you must do to stop it.

What protects your business if a term is unfair?

The Electricity Authority's Consumer Care Obligations largely protect households, so a business relies mainly on its contract and general law.

The Fair Trading Act helps smaller accounts. Since 16 August 2022, its unfair contract terms rules have covered standard form "small trade contracts" entered into, renewed or varied from that date: business relationships worth up to $250,000 a year, including GST, when the relationship first arises.

The Commerce Commission's examples of possibly unfair terms include ones letting one party, but not the other, vary the upfront price without a right to terminate, penalise the other for ending the contract, or decide whether it renews. Only the Commission can take action over an unfair term in a small trade contract, and a clear term setting the upfront price cannot be declared unfair.

Should your business be on time-of-use pricing?

Check it if you have a smart meter and use, or can move, a good share of your power outside peak hours.

From 1 October 2026, every retailer with 5% or more of New Zealand's electricity connections must have at least one time-varying pricing plan available to small business customers with a smart meter. The Electricity Industry Act 2010 defines a small business consumer as a non-domestic consumer using under 40 MWh a year. Retailers can still offer bespoke business plans alongside.

Test it on your own numbers

The Authority's guidance encourages retailers to offer small businesses a "shadow bill" comparison using past consumption data. Price each time-of-use offer on your half-hourly data and compare the annual total with a flat rate.

What should be on your renewal checklist?

Do you have to do all this yourself?

No. Manage My Bills compares electricity, gas, fibre, water and waste for commercial connections nationwide. See what we do for business electricity, or start a comparison for your renewal.