Your voice matters
We welcome your feedback on our consultations and surveys, so make sure you have your say.
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Purposeful engagement is our priority
Your ideas, opinions and information are essential to our work - helping ensure it is well informed and relevant. Every day, across all levels, we actively engage with people who have a vested interest in what we do and the decisions we make. We treat these relationships seriously - the quality of these relationships determine how we improve market design and performance and how we improve outcomes for electricity consumers.
Before we develop our plans and make decisions about the sector, we consult with stakeholders. Effective engagement means we are exposed to all points of view, we get the best available information, and we understand different perspectives to be able to make robust decisions. It helps you build trust in us and in the decisions we make to improve the regulatory regime and processes.
Have your say in our consultations - we'd love to hear your views.
Consumer and industry wānanga
We run six-monthly wānanga to bring together representatives from all areas of the sector to discuss the current challenges and opportunities facing consumers.
They are a chance for retailers, consumer advocates, community networks and policy agencies to hear and learn from each other. The discussions are consumer-focused and help to inform future policy decisions, retail offerings and advocacy approaches to improve outcomes for consumers.
These events are invite-only. We welcome expressions of interest to join to engagement@ea.govt.nz
You will find a summary of each wānanga below. Our next wānanga is planned for November 2025.
May 2025
Our third consumer and industry wānanga took place on 21 May 2025 with a focus on 'affordability: today and into the future'.
In the morning session, consumer advocates discussed financial hardship for electricity consumers, emphasising that vulnerable consumers will need the most support.
Retailers and government agencies shared the steps they are taking to assist those in financial difficulty and the importance of building trust through meaningful community engagement.
In the afternoon focus shifted to the future and what a more decentralised, community-powered electricity system could look like by 2040. The output from these discussions contributed to the Authority’s decentralisation consultation.
We also identified actions and areas people are keen to explore further:
- many retailers are proactively engaging with consumers in need, but it can be challenging to get consumers to ‘answer the phone'
- while retailers have the information and options that consumers need, it’s the community organisations and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) that have their trust, so we need to explore ways retailers and trusted NGOs can work together to engage vulnerable consumers
- there continues to be a key role for the Electricity Authority to act as facilitator, bringing parties together to enable collaborative action
- all parties were keen to get these good news stories into the public arena to increase consumer trust and to encourage best practice approaches.
Read our full next steps report from the May 2025 wānanga.
October 2024
Our second Consumer and industry wānanga was held on 31 October 2024. Discussion focused on preparations for winter 2025 and examples of the work underway across the sector to help support those in need.
Several retailers discussed consumer experiences of energy hardship, disconnections and the early signals of energy hardship that they look out for.
The Electricity Authority celebrated receiving over 350 responses to the Consumer Care Obligations consultation and the strong support to mandate the obligations.
Social retailers Toast and Nau Mai Rā discussed the ways they are able to achieve lower costs for their customers through a combination of hedging, cross-subsidies and their non-profit status.
The Chair of the Electricity Authority Advisory Group explained the role of the group and introduced the current projects they were providing the Authority advice on.
ERANZ presented their Connect Me pilot, that aims to assist customers with adverse credit history to access electricity.
March 2024
Our inaugural consumer and industry wānanga was held on 26 March 2024, bringing representatives from the electricity industry and consumer advocates together to discuss energy wellbeing.
Our aim was to identify the issues and areas the electricity sector could put its collective effort behind to make the greatest impact for people experiencing energy hardship.
The wānanga provided some valuable insights, which you can read in full in our follow up report: Electricity consumer and industry wānanga March 2024 next steps.
Assessing our performance
We commission independent stakeholder reviews to inform and improve how we work. This research includes in-depth interviews with a range of senior-level stakeholders, as well as field work.
We also commission independent industry and consumer perception surveys, which are published with our Annual Report each year.
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