What is an ICP number, and where do I find it on my business power bill?

Your ICP number is the 15-character code that identifies your business's electricity connection in New Zealand's national electricity registry. It's printed on every power bill, labelled "ICP", and you can look it up free on the Electricity Authority's website using just your address.

This guide covers what the code means, where to find it, what its registry record shows about your connection, and why it's the first thing anyone needs to compare your power costs properly.

What is an ICP number?

An ICP number identifies an installation control point: the point on a local network that your lines company nominates as where a retailer is deemed to supply electricity to you, in the Electricity Authority's definition.

Think of it as the permanent address of your power supply, not of your business. The Code requires an ICP wherever a retailer sells electricity to a customer, and lines companies create them. Powerco, for example, notes there is one for every service line or cable connected to its network, so a single property can have several.

As at 31 August 2026 there were 2,372,511 active electricity ICPs in New Zealand, according to the Authority's market data. About 348,000 of those were commercial or industrial connections. The rest were homes.

How is the 15-character ICP number built?

Every electricity ICP follows one pattern, set out in Schedule 11.1 of the Electricity Industry Participation Code: ten digits, a two-character distributor code, then a three-character checksum.

The lines company PowerNet uses 0000680207NV1F0 as the example on its ICP help page.

The Code also says an ICP identifier "may not be changed". That has two consequences. It stays the same when you switch retailer. And the two-character code reflects whichever distributor created it, which isn't always the company that runs your lines today, so treat it as a hint and check the registry's network field for the current answer.

Where do I find the ICP on my business power bill?

Look for the letters "ICP". Clause 11.30 of the Code requires every retailer to print the relevant ICP on every electricity invoice and to label it clearly as "ICP".

On commercial bills, watch for these:

• It isn't your account or customer number. Those belong to your retailer and usually change when you switch. The ICP stays with the connection.
• It isn't your meter number. The meter serial number is a separate code, although the registry records it against your ICP.
• Multi-site invoices should list each connection's own ICP. Check the count matches the connections you expect to be paying for.
• Gas has its own ICP. Reticulated natural gas connections carry a separate identifier on the gas bill, held in a separate gas registry.

No bill to hand? Under clause 11.31, your retailer must give you your ICP within 3 business days of your asking, and so must your lines company. Faster still, look it up yourself.

How do I look up an ICP number online?

Use the free Your meter search on the Electricity Authority website (opens in a new tab). Enter an address or an ICP and it returns that connection's registry details.

1. Enter the street number and street name. The town is optional. Or search by ICP directly.
2. For a unit, put the unit after the street number. The Authority's example is "150-10 road name" for unit 10 at number 150. The registry can record the same unit several ways (1C/154, 154-1C and so on), so try variations.
3. If several results appear, pick the right one using the property description (such as "workshop"), the meter serial number and the status code: 002 is active, 001 inactive, 003 decommissioned.
4. Remember the ICP address is where the lines company supplies electricity. It may not match your street or postal address. If it's wrong, ask your retailer to correct it.

Businesses with many sites can use the Authority's ICP API for bulk searches after signing up for a key. The full registry itself is open only to industry participants and organisations the Authority approves for regulatory or investigation purposes.

What does the ICP record tell you about your connection?

The ICP record shows anyone quoting on your power which lines company you're on, which of its tariffs applies, what metering you have and where your supply connects to the grid. These are the fields that matter most for a business:

What the public record doesn't hold is your name or your meter readings.

Most business connections are small. In the Authority's metering dataset as at 31 August 2026, about 86% of non-residential ICPs were metering category 1 and 9% category 2. Fewer than 2%, about 6,300 connections, were category 3 or above.

Worked example: two price category codes on one network

Here's what the price category code means in practice on Vector's Auckland network, using its lines prices from 1 April 2026 (excluding GST):

Two businesses on the same street can carry very different network costs, and the code on the ICP is what tells a retailer which set applies. Across the country, the Authority's metering dataset for 31 August 2026 lists more than 900 distinct price category codes. Our regional hubs show which networks cover each area.

Why does a business power comparison start from the ICP?

Because the ICP pins down exactly which connection is being priced and switched, and an address alone can't do that reliably.

• It prevents the wrong-site switch. The Authority has published a compliance case in which a retailer assigned an ICP with a similar address, and the customer ended up paying for their neighbour's electricity. The Authority recommends retailers confirm the ICP is accurate for the premises when they take on a customer.
• It sets the cost base. Network, price category and capacity fix the lines part of any quote. The meter type decides whether time-of-use or half-hourly pricing is possible at all.
• It carries the switch. For most metering category 1 and 2 connections, the new retailer must notify the registry within 2 business days of your agreement taking effect, and the old retailer must set a switch date no more than 10 business days after it's notified. Category 3 and larger sites switch through a separate half-hour process.
• It unlocks your usage data. Your retailer must give you up to 24 months of consumption information for each ICP within 5 business days of a request, free. You can also authorise an agent to request it for you.

Businesses switch less often than households. In the 12 months to August 2026, commercial connections changed retailer at a rate of 16.4% and industrial connections 11.1%, against 19.6% for homes. That's about 49,900 business switches in total.

If you'd like to see what your connection could cost elsewhere, our savings calculator starts from exactly that: your address or your ICP number.