Energy Online (Frank Energy)｜Is it the best NZ power company for you?

Energy Online has changed their company name to “Frank Energy” in 2021, but their service has not changed.

This page give you the best answers for the following questions;

• What is Frank Energy?
• What kinds of services Frank Energy is offering?
• Should I made a contract with the Frank Energy for power/electricity?
• What is advantages and disadvantages of Frank Energy?

This page is the best for you to understand about these types of questions.

I’m going to explain about Frank Energy one by one as below.

1. What is Frank Energy?
2. What is the advantages of Frank Energy?
3. What is the disadvantages of Frank Energy?
4. Which power company is the best for you?【plus comparison table】

If you read this page, you can easily understand what Frank Energy is and whether Frank Energy is the best company for you or not.

1. What is Frank Energy?

source: Frank Energy

Frank Energy is one of the smaller power companies established in 2021.

Frank Energy buys electricity in the wholesale electricity market and supplies it to their customers.

Also, Genesis Energy (one of the 5 biggest power companies in NZ) has 100% share of Frank Energy, so you don’t need to worry, even if you don’t know the name of Frank Energy.

Head Office	Auckland
Operate from	Frank Energy established in 2021
Main Shareholders	100%: Genesis Energy Ltd
Services	Electricity Gas
Service are	North Island: Electricity and Gas South Island: Electricity only
Customer (electricity)	Around 90,000 homes throughout NZ
Number of employee	Around 60 employees

Top5 power companies (“Big5”) in New Zealand

Company name	Customer (ICP count*)	Market share (ICP share)
Genesis Energy	490,000	22%
Contact Energy	420,000	19%
Meridian Energy	340,000	15%
Mercury NZ	330,000	15%
Trustpower	270,000	12%

(*) ICP (Installation Control Point) : Each property has a unique ICP number identifying it on the New Zealand electricity network.
(*) ICP count : the total number of ICP

(source: Electricity Authority, as of March 2021)

2. What is the advantages of Frank Energy?

Based on my research, the 2 advantages of Frank Energy are as below.

1. One stop shop for Electricity and Gas
2. Good customer satisfaction among the major power companies

Details of the advantage are as below.

2-1. One stop shop for Electricity and Gas

source: Frank Energy

Frank Energy is one of the smaller providers for electricity and gas.

So, if you choose Frank Energy, it is easy and convenient for you to arrange these at once.

And there is no fixed term contract and no break fee, so you can change to another power company anytime, if you like.

Many payment options

You can pay a bill by the following payment options.

• Internet banking
• Direct debit
• Credit card
• Pay at NZ Post Shops
• and etc

2-2. Good customer satisfaction among the major power companies

Frank Energy(“Online Energy”) has good customer satisfaction based on the survey “Customer Satisfaction with power companies” by Consumer NZ in 2021.

(*) Consumer NZ is an independent, non-profit organisation to offer New Zealanders a fairer deal and established in 1959.

source: Consumer NZ

Based on the survey, the score of customer satisfaction of Energy Online(Frank Energy) is slightly higher than the average of electric industry in NZ.

(*) Also, you should know that the big power companies (“big5”) are roughly average or lower average.

3. What is the disadvantages of Frank Energy?

Based on my research, the 2 disadvantage of Frank Energy are as below.

1. Not clear how much are your costs and savings from your current bill
2. There are some power companies with higher customer satisfaction

The details of the disadvantages are as below.

3-1. Not clear how much is your cost and savings from your current bill

Frank Energy has 2 electric plans, so you need to choose [ Lower user plan ] or [Standard user plan].

	Low user plan	Standard user plan
Guideline	Some of households in NZ	Most households in NZ
It’s good for	1 or 2 person Small energy efficient homes	Families Houses that use many electric heating equipments
Your usage for 1year	Less than 8000 kWh/year (9000 for those in the South Island)	More than 8000 kWh/year (9000 for those in the South Island)

For example, using the following price checker, I choose “Auckland” to check energy rates, but I’m not sure whether this price is cheaper than my current price from another power company.

source: Frank Energy

3-2. There are some power companies with higher customer satisfaction

If you need electricity and Gas/Broadband, it is not too bad for you to join Frank Energy.

Of course Frank Energy is one of the good companies, but if you need only electricity, I recommend you to join “Powershop”

Because Powershop is awarded as the No.1 customer satisfaction power company in 2021.

source: Consumer NZ

So I’ll explain about Powershop in the next chapter.

4. Which power company is the cheapest for you?【plus comparison table】

It is important to think about [customer satisfaction] or [cheapest price in the area you live in], when you choose a power company.

I recommend that you should choose a company

• [Best customer satisfaction]・・”Powershop“.
• [Cheapest price finding tool]・・”Powerswitch“

Also, I’ll show you a comparison table of the most popular 10 power companies in NZ at the end of this part.

4-1. [Best customer satisfaction] ・・”Powershop”

source: Powershop

Powershop is a smaller power company, and No.1 customer satisfaction among major power companies in NZ in 2021 based on the survey by Consumer NZ.

I believe that you can enjoy price and service by Powershop, because Based on the survey, the score of “value for money” is 63% (this score is much higher than average of the electric industry).

Also, Meridian Energy (one of the 5 biggest power company in NZ) owned 100% share of Powershop, so you don’t need to worry about Powershop.

It’s good for you to check Powershop’s official website.

Head Office	Wellington
Operate from	2009
Main Shareholders	100%: Meridian Energy
Service	Electricity only
Service area	All of NZ
Customer	around 95,000 customers
Number of employee	Over 200 employees

4-2. [Cheapest price finding tool]・・”Powerswitch”

Powerswitch is the best way for you to find the cheapest electric plan.

source: Powerswitch

Powerswitch is the best website in New Zealand to find which power company and pricing plan is the cheapest for you.

What you have to do is just to input some information (your address, number of your family, type of heating products/systems you use and etc), then you can get to know the cheapest plan.

For example, the result will come up as a list such as the following image.

source: Powerswitch

So, it is easy to understand that which company and plan you should choose.

(*) If you want to know more details about Powerswith, please check another page “What is POWERSWITCH? The best way to find the cheapest electricity plan“.

4-3. Comparison table of the most popular 10 power companies in NZ

It’s good for you to get to know the difference between Frank Energy and other popular electric providers.

(*) You can scroll the following chart left to right.

source: Electricity Authority (as of March 2021)

6. Summary

Until here, I explained about Frank Energy’s advantages and disadvantages, the difference between Frank Energy and other main power companies in NZ – is it useful for you?

As a summary, I write down about the main points of this page as below.

• Energy Online has changed their company name to “Frank Energy” in 2021.
• Frank Energy is not too bad for you, If you need Electricity and Gas.
• If you need Electricity only, I recommend for you to check “Powershop” first.

So, I recommend the following power companies and website, so please check it !!

• “Powershop“・・・Best customer satisfaction among the NZ’s major power companies.
• “Powerswitch“・・・You can get to know the cheapest electric plan in the area you live in.

Many thanks to read this page.

Please let your family and friends about this page, if you like.