This page give you the best answers for the following questions;
- What is Mercury NZ (“Mercury”)?
- What kinds of services Mercury is offering?
- Should I made a contract with the Mercury for power/electricity?
- What is advantages and disadvantages of Mercury?
This page is the best for you to understand about these types of questions.
I’m going to explain about Mercury one by one as below.
- What is Mercury?
- What is the advantages of Mercury?
- What is the disadvantages of Mercury?
- Which power company is the best for you?【plus comparison table】
If you read this page, you can easily understand what Mercury is and whether Mercury is the best company for you or not.
1. What is Mercury?
source: Mercury
Mercury is one of the “Big5” power companies in the New Zealand.
Mercury is very stable company, because The New Zealand Government has a 51% share of the company.
And, Mercury supplies electricity, piped gas, solar and electric vehicles.
Head Office | Auckland |
Operate from | 1998 |
Main Shareholders | 51%: New Zealand Government 3%: HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Ltd 3%: JPmorgan Chase Bank. N. A. |
Services |
|
Customer (electricity) | around 330,000 customers |
Market share (electricity) | No.4 in the NZ’s electric market |
Number of employee | around 800 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 Mercury?
Based on my research, the 3 advantages of Mercury are as below.
- One stop shop for electricity, gas and electric bikes/others.
- Stable operation as a big company.
- You can get rewards (“credit”).
Details of the advantage are as below.
2-1. One stop shop for electricity, gas and electric bikes/others
Mercury is one of the major providers for electricity, gas and electric bikes/others
So, if you choose Mercury, it’s very easy and convenient for you to arrange these services all at once.
Easy to check your electric plans
① Input your address
source: Mercury
② Choose [Electricity] and/or [Piped gas]
source: Mercury
③ Check plans you can choose
source: Mercury
It takes only 1-3 minutes to check the electric plans.
So please try it now from the following click button, if you like!!
2-2. Stable operation as a big company
Mercury is one of the “Big5”, and has strong relationship with The New Zealand Government.
So you don’t need to worry about the credibility as a provider, and Mercury will keep providing the electricity, gas and etc in the future, too.
Also, Mercury operates 17 power stations, and the installed capacities are as below.
- Hydroelectric:1,077MW
- Geothermal : 467MW
- Wind : 233MW
- Total :1,777MW
2-3. You can get rewards (credit, discount).
source: Mercury
Mercury give some rewards (“credit”) for you.
- Get a $200 credit, if you sign up for 2 year contract.
- Get a $75 credit, if you sign up for 1 year contract.
- a 15 cents Dual Fuel discount, if you add “piped gas” to electricity plan
So you can get the discount from your electric bill.
Q. What is “electric bikes and others” ?
Mercury offer the “e.TRANSPORT” services – the follwing ①electric bikes, ②electric vehicles(“EVS”), ③electric scooters.
source: Mercury
3. What is the disadvantages of Mercury?
Based on my research, the 3 disadvantages of Mercury are as below.
- No broadband service.
- It is not easy to switch to another power company to get cheaper electric bills
- Basically smaller power companies have “better customer satisfaction”
The details of the disadvantages are as below.
3-1. No broadband service
If you need an electricity plan and broadband plan (as a set plan / as a bundle plan), Mercury does not suit for you because of no broadband service.
The following companies offer both of an electricity plan and broadband plan, so please check their official websites, if you like.
- Contact Energy・・・One of “Big5”
- Trustpower・・・One of “Big5”
- Nova Energy・・・Smaller power company, but “Good customer satisfaction”
3-2. It is not easy to change to another power company to get cheaper electric bills
Once you make a contract with Contact Energy, it is not easy to switch to another power company to get cheaper electric bills based on the following reasons.
- Some plans are 1 or 2 year fixed-term contract (with a breaking fee: $150)
- If you stop (terminate) the contract of power, the other costs for broadband etc will back to the standard price.
【Important】Some plans offer “1 or 2 year fixed-term contract”
Contact Energy’s some plans for electricity, gas and broadband are “1 or 2 year fixed-term contract”.
So you need to know that if you end the contract within 2 years, you have to pay a “breaking fee” ($150).
3-3. Basically smaller power companies have “better customer satisfaction”
Unfortunately there is no data of Mercury, but here is a result of the survey “Customer Satisfaction with power companies” conducted by Consumer NZ in 2020.
(*) Consumer NZ is an independent, non-profit organisation to offer New Zealanders a fairer deal and established in 1959.
source: Consumer NZ
As above, 3 of the smaller and newer power companies have higher customer satisfaction, but 2 of the “Big5” have lower one.
Actually, the average of the electric industry is only “52%”, because mainly most of the people feel that electric cost is too expensive.
Q. Which companies have better customer satisfaction?
So I recommend to check the following companies with better customer’s satisfaction/review.
- Flick Electric:Electricity only.
- Nova Energy:Electricity, gas and broadband.
- Electric Kiwi:Electricity only.
I’ll explain about “Flick Electric” soon in this page.
4. Which power company is the best 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]・・To choose “Flick Electric“.
- [Cheapest price]・・Use “Powerswitch” and find the cheapest plan for you.
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] ・・Choose “Flick Electric”
Flick Electric is a smaller power company, and the first energy retailer started from 2014.
Flick Electric buys cheaper power directly from the wholesale electricity market, and offer electricity with cheaper cost than big power companies.
It is very important that Flick Electric is the No.1 company based on the survey for customer satisfaction of power companies, so you don’t need to worry about the electric bill any more.
Flick Electric is 100% has partnership with Z Energy since 2018, so I believe that Flick Electric has enough credit to make a contract.
Head Office | Wellington |
Operate from | 2014 |
Main Shareholders | 100%: Z Energy Limited (established in 1959) |
Service are | Electricity only |
Customer (electricity) | 26,000 |
Market share (electricity) | roughly 1% share in the NZ’s electric market |
Number of employee | – |
Payment Method |
|
4-2. [Cheapest price]・・Use “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’s very 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 Mercury and other popular electric providers.
(*) You can scroll the following chart left to right.
Company name | Ownership | Number of customer (Market share) |
Capacity of power generation | Services | Review (customer’s satisfaction) |
Genesis Energy |
Partial State |
490,000 (22%) |
generator and retailer |
Electricity Gas |
◯ |
Contact Energy |
Partial State | 420,000 (19%) |
generator and retailer | Electricity Gas Broadband |
▲ |
Meridian Energy |
Partial State |
340,000 (15%) |
generator and retailer |
Electricity only | ◯ |
Mercury NZ |
Partial State |
330,000 (15%) |
generator and retailer |
Electricity only | ◯ |
Trustpower |
Private company | 270,000 (12%) |
generator and retailer | Electricity Gas Broadband Landline Mobile |
▲ |
Nova Energy |
Private company | 120,000 (5%) |
Retailer Only |
Electricity Gas Broadband |
◎ |
Pulse Energy |
Private company | 84,000 (4%) |
Retailer Only |
Electricity Gas Broadband |
◯ |
Electric Kiwi |
Private company | 76,000 (3%) |
Retailer Only |
Electricity only | ◎ |
Vocus |
Private company | 38,000 (2%) |
Retailer Only | Electricity Broadband |
◯ |
Flick Electric |
Private company | 26,000 (1%) |
Retailer Only |
Electricity only | ◎ |
source: Electricity Authority (as of March 2021)
6. Summary
Until here, I explained about Mercury‘s advantages and disadvantages, the difference between Mercury 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.
- Mercury is one of the “Big5”. (No.4 place in the NZ’s electric industry.)
- Mercury is one stop shop for electricity, gas, solar and electric vehicles.
- Smaller and newer power companies have better customer satisfaction.
And, I recommend the following power companies and website, so please check it !!
- “Flick Electric“・・・Best customer satisfaction of NZ’s 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.