You’ll need to contact an energy retailer to set up an account if you’re not already a customer. You can find a list of retailers at Powerswitch. If you’re already an existing or recent customer of an energy retailer, you’ll need to contact them to advise the new address you’d like to be connected to. Find out more here.

Please apply for a new electricity connection here. You can ask your electrician to assist you with completing the form, or have them complete the form on your behalf.

You’ll need to pay the application fee online when you submit the form.

Before you get started, you’ll need:

• Bill payer contact details – if there is a cost associated with this work, then the quote and invoice will be issued to this person
• Electrician contact details
• Your chosen electricity retailer and your account number with that retailer
• Electricity retail account holder contact details
• There is a charge for your new connection application – you will need your credit card or account 2 account details handy.

If power to the boundary is required, your preferred Northpower Approved Contractor needs to undertake the work.

Our application fees for new load connections are:

• Standard application: $100
• Complex applications: $500-$1000

Our application fees for distributed generation are:

• Up to 10KW and residential: $100
• 11kW  – 100kW: $500
• 101kW – 1MW max.: $1000

The costs involved for delivering your connection/network capacity used are assessed by us or your chosen Northpower-approved contractor and consider factors like the complexity of the design, the equipment required, and the work involved. Once costs are assessed, you will get a quote. You can get quotes from more than one Northpower-approved contractor, so you can compare prices.

How we calculate your charges for network capital costs is outlined here (Capital Contributions Introduction hyperlink + link to policy).

We will do a high-level application review within 30 working days. We may need to request more information.

For larger customers, we determine initial chargeable quantities based on the capacity requested for a new connection, and these apply from the date the new connection is livened. Sometimes initial usage is low, but we don’t provide reduced charges for the low utilisation to minimise the extent to which these costs fall to other customers.

Construction of your service main (private cable/line) can be done by your electrician. When your connection is ready to proceed, let us know. You’ll choose your network-approved contractor to inspect, install the meter, connect and liven to the network – see the table of Northpower-approved contractors

Your electrician will certify your service main and also organise for the connection to be inspected and livened to the network. This can only be done by a Northpower-approved contractor. Your electrician and the Northpower-approved contractor will schedule an inspection of the work, connect and liven. At this point, your energy retailer will begin billing you for your electricity.

The need to increase capacity is quite common for farms, small commercial and larger customers where you introduce new loads (e.g. new building, new equipment, significant Electric Vehicle charging).

It is not common for residential customers adding typical household appliances or a single EV. However if you are thinking about substantial new loads such as altering the heating source within your home (e.g., going from a log burner to multiple heat pumps), discuss with your electrician if you may need to increase your capacity in order to meet the added demand of such appliances. Your electrician will be able to advise you on what will be required.

New connections and loads use up network capacity and contribute to the need for upgrades to the electricity distribution network (e.g. upgrading the transformers, power lines, etc., supplying customers). This can incur a high cost.

In order to cover this cost, we have to charge for all capacity used. This capacity fee contributes towards any network upgrade work that may be required as a result of the specific capacity increase or other capacity increases in the future. In this way, no single customer ends up being charged for the entire cost of a network upgrade, but rather, the cost is spread across all customers who will benefit.

Read more in the Capital Contributions policy.

An easement is a legal right for one person to use another person’s property. It gives us the right to install, operate, inspect, maintain and upgrade our equipment on property we don’t own. Easements are registered on the land title, so we have the same rights even if the property is sold.

Often our equipment will cross more than one person’s property – that’s how we get electricity from A to B. When this happens, there’ll be more than one landowner who we need an easement from.

If an easement is needed for your connection, this will be discussed with you during the connection process. If your neighbour is asking you to give us an easement, it’s usually because we need our equipment to cross your property so we can supply your neighbour’s house with electricity.

Find more information here.

This is a very common question and we are happy to provide an estimate. To apply for a ballpark estimate, complete the application form online.

Other than your contact details, there are several pieces of information that you will need to include in your (or your service providers) enquiry or application. For standard connections, these are typically:

• Property address. This is the address of the property where you would like the service installed.
• Lot or Deposited Plan (DP) number. If you don’t have an address yet, then a Lot or DP number will be fine.
• Pole number of the closest power pole. If you can see a power pole nearby, there will be a pole number on it. Take that number down, or better still, take a photo of it for reference.
• What are you going to be powering? We need to know if this is for a residential dwelling or a commercial operation. This will have an impact on the design of your power requirements.
• Your electricity retailer and the retail account holder’s details.

No. You may need to pay towards the cost of a network upgrade or to have Northpower equipment installed on your property to enable your connection. This is so that the additional costs of your connection are not paid for by other customers. However, the equipment will still belong to us, and we will be responsible for operating and maintaining the equipment we own. Other equipment on your property that you own, e.g., your service line connecting to your building/s or equipment, you are responsible for maintaining.

For further advice, please contact our customer care team with any questions you have regarding the connections process – we’re here to help. Please call us on 0800 10 40 40.