What happens if my retailer goes out of business?
If your electricity retailer suddenly goes out of business, the Electricity Authority will help you move to another retailer. Your electricity supply will continue.
In the unlikely event that an electricity retailer suddenly goes out of business, the Electricity Authority will implement a pre-planned process (called the trader default scheme).
If you are impacted you will be contacted directly. Your first option will be to choose to switch to another retailer operating in your area. You’ll have around a week to make this choice.
You can visit the Consumer NZ Powerswitch website to find available retailers in your area and find the best deal for you. Once you have found a new retailer, contact them by phone or online to organise the switch. Alternatively you can make the switch directly on Powerswitch.
If you do not wish to choose another retailer, or have any difficulties finding a new retailer, we will then run a process to manually re-assign customers to other retailers. There are detailed guidelines about how this will happen on the Managing trader default situations webpage
It’s likely this entire process will take about 3 weeks to complete. Your electricity supply will continue throughout this process. If you have any questions through the process, information will be available on this website, or you can contact the Authority.
