AWARDS FINALIST: Ecotricity

Ecotricity, New Zealand's only climate-positive certified electricity provider, was the country’s fastest-growing retailer in the two years to March.

That growth, driven by the company’s focus on renewable energy, saw the volume supplied to its customers in 2023 more than triple from two years earlier.

The company, majority-owned by Genesis Energy, also achieved profitability for the first time since its launch in 2013.

Ecotricity attributes its growth to the climate-positive certainty it can provide to customers – large and small.

Corporate customers also benefit from what Ecotricity considers to be “best-in-class” consumption and emissions avoided reporting by location and ICP.

The more customers it gains, the more climate-positive electricity the company must source, driving the development of new renewable energy projects.

Solar leader

Innovative pricing plans are also drawing the attention of household solar users as well as grid-scale developers.

The company says it has 30-times the average solar penetration within its customer base – or just over a quarter of the national total.

And almost half of all new monthly solar connections switch to Ecotricity for their grid supply.

The company is working hard to reward customers for the flexibility services that those with solar and batteries will increasingly be able to offer into the market.

The firm’s ecoBATTERY plan includes a higher export rate than its standard solar plan. A new retail offering also includes a peak buy-back rate of 21 cents for consumers who have a battery with their solar installation.

Based on information on the Powerswitch platform at the time of the awards entry, that will be the country’s best solar buy-back rate, available all year round, Ecotricity says.

The firm also offers customers the option to convert accumulated solar export credits into cash. This is to encourage customers to increase the amount they export, either by altering their consumption, or by installing larger solar systems and introducing storage.

ecoSLEEVE, solar partnerships

The company’s innovative price plan, ecoSLEEVE, provides long-term price certainty for its commercial customers so that solar and wind developers can progress with the construction of new renewable energy sites.

By accelerating the development of these sites, Ecotricity is accelerating the reduction of power sector emissions.

In 2023, Ecotricity partnered with Orion to deliver a flexibility solution for the Lincoln area, which was experiencing strong residential growth. The scheme went live in May, showcasing the firm’s platforms and their ability to drive better cost and carbon outcomes for consumers and the local grid.

In May, the company also became the exclusive solar partner for the Sustainable Energy Association of New Zealand, with the goal of helping SEANZ members install more solar systems and add more renewable energy generation into the mix.

At the same time, it launched tailored reporting for solar partners through PowerBI. Solar partners have access to detailed information for all their referred customers, including average weekday/weekend consumption profiles, flags for export-capable metering, and carbon emissions avoided.

This data allows solar partners to identify which customers would benefit from increased solar or storage capacity.

The Energy Retailer of the Year award category is sponsored by EDMI.