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.

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.

Other than your contact details, there are several pieces of information that you will require to get a power service installed to your property and 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.

We’ll assess your connection requirements and get back to you within 10 working days of your application to let you know if:

• There’s a suitable connection available, and you can proceed, or
• Further work is required to make a connection available, or
• Further network design and construction work is required on Northpower’s network to enable your connection

Once you’re able to proceed, we’ll issue you an installation control point (ICP) number. You can contact your retailer to arrange metering and quote this ICP number. We’ll also supply this ICP number to your retailer. When your electrician is ready to connect your electricity, they can arrange an appointment with your chosen metering and connection contractor to install the meter and complete the connection.

If power is available at the boundary, this service takes around 10 working days. If your request is urgent, please get in touch with us.

Network design and construction (where required):

• If further network design/works are required, we’ll provide you with a quote, and you’ll need to cover the costs of these works.
• Work can commence once you’ve accepted our quote and made payment.

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).

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.

See Northpower’s list of Network Approved Contractors.

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.

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.

We have a different connection process for complex connections, which involves more details and ensures we will have capacity on the network to support your needs. Learn more about complex connections.

We’ve created the table below to help you understand the different roles and responsibilities for a new electricity connection.

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.