Consumer choice league table

Report notes

1. The choice available to consumers varies depending on where they live and which network they are connected to. Network reporting regions (NRR) provide the best alignment to pricing regions which retailers compete within for consumers. A retail entity must serve more than three ICPs within the region and market segment to be counted, except for the ‘New Zealand’ region with ‘all ICPs’ selected where a retail entity counts if it serves a single ICP. Other regions must have at least 250 ICPs from a NRR within their boundary to include the choice available in the NRR as available in the region. For these regions and retail entities users are able to select the total present in the region, maximum choice on any network in the region, or minimum choice on any network in the region.
   
   The consumer choice measure approximates the choice available to consumers. However, a retailer supplying connections in a region is not necessarily available for new customers to choose (the retailer may not be accepting new customers). Alternatively, it's possible that a new retailer may have an available option in a region that no consumers have yet chosen. Retail brands are available from 2011 with snapshot data for each December. Direct purchasers/generators are excluded from this report as they are not acting as electricity suppliers.

2. Retail entities are brand, trader, and parent company. Some snapshot brand information is available at 31 December each year from 2011. Trader information is derived from the registry and parent company stats are a simple sum from trader data, including switches. Parent companies track ownership changes through time. Direct purchasers/generators in this report are traders with ICPs that are not active as retailers and directly purchase from, or sell to, the clearing manager. These companies are Alinta, Cold Storage Nelson, Lloyd Wensley, NZ Aluminium Smelters, NZ Steel, NZ Wind Farms, The NZ Refining Company, and Onekaka Energy.

3. Market segment breakdowns are available from September 2013 when ANZSIC codes were introduced into the registry in a field maintained by the trader. No breakdown is available at NSP level. Market segments are not mutually exclusive. Residential connections have no ANZSIC code. Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) connections are defined as those assigned meter categories 1 and 2 (low voltage up to 500A) with an ANZSIC code excluding those relating to central or local government and other utility services. Industrial connections have ANZSIC codes from A through E while commercial connections use ANZSIC codes F through Z. More information on ANZSIC codes is available at www.stats.govt.nz.

4. Region types are either network based or derived from standard statistical boundaries. Network-based regions are network supply points (NSPs), network reporting regions, and zones. Mappings are available in the NSP table which is available as a wholesale report. Other regions are derived from ICP location data and statistical boundaries (2013 census). ICPs without location data default to the location of their NSP. Main centres use Territorial Authority boundaries (City Councils) where Wellington includes Porirua City, Upper Hutt City, Lower Hutt City, and Wellington City. Many data reports allow for the selection ‘All regions’ (where the regions are not the data series) to get data for all regions in a single file. Regions are listed in a North to South ordering, except for NSPs which are listed alphabetically.