Why the time of day matters
Electricity is a different price every half hour of every day. On a cold, still winter evening at six o'clock, power on the wholesale market can be worth ten or twenty times what it was worth at two that morning.
That is the hour every household wants the heat pump, the oven and the shower at once. Retailers cover it by averaging: they buy across the year, hedge what they can, and set a rate that has to carry the worst of it. When the market goes badly wrong, as it did in the dry winters of recent years, that cost finds its way onto your bill.
Lines charges by the hour
The other part of your bill pays for the poles and wires that carry power to your street. Your local network company publishes those charges, and they are priced by the hour. This is Orion’s schedule for a standard home in Christchurch. Every network is different, but the shape is the same.
| When | Lines charge, per unit |
|---|
| Busiest: weekdays 7–11am and 5–10pm | about 17.25c |
| In between: weekdays 5–7am and 11am–5pm | about 10c |
| Weekends, outside the early hours | about 4.5c |
| Quiet: 10pm–3am | just under 1c |
| Quietest: 3–5am, every day of the year | nil |
What a battery changes
A battery at your place is filled overnight and through the middle of the day, when there is plenty of power about and it costs less. It supports your home through the morning and evening, when power costs more. Same power, same wires, a different hour.
Across thousands of homes, that is storage sitting where the demand is. The busiest hours are what force networks to build bigger cables and transformers. Homes that stop drawing from the grid in those hours make them lighter, and the network can put off building something expensive.
Where the money comes from
- The gap between the hours. We buy when power costs less and use it when it costs more. That gap is the largest piece.
- What the battery sells back. Once your home is covered, power left over goes to the grid when it is worth the most. You get a share of what it earns.
- What the grid pays for stability. A fleet of batteries that can respond in under a second is worth money to the people who keep the grid steady. That income sits behind your rate and helps hold it down.
Together, these are what let us set your rate lower than the cheapest equivalent plan in your area.
What you pay
When you sign, your power rate is lower than the cheapest equivalent plan in your area. It has two parts: one for the expensive hours, weekdays 7am to 11am and 5pm to 9pm, and a lower one for all other times, including weekends. The battery shifts when your home draws from the grid, so you can use power as normal.
| Example rates, Christchurch | Most homes | Smaller homes |
|---|
| The expensive hours, per unit | 27.78c | 29.17c |
| All other times, per unit | 22.86c | 24.25c |
| Daily charge | $1.96 | $1.62 |
Rates include GST. Smaller homes are those using under 9,000 units a year. These are example rates for Christchurch, on the Orion network, as at 29 October 2026. Rates differ by area and can change during your agreement, as any retailer’s can. The smaller-home daily charge is the low fixed charge option under the Electricity (Low Fixed Charge Tariff Option for Domestic Consumers) Regulations 2004; those Regulations are revoked on 1 April 2027, after which standard daily charges apply to all households.
There are no prompt-payment discounts and no conditions to qualify for. Your share of what the battery earns arrives as a credit on your bill, separate from your rate. In an example month, a Christchurch home using 10,000 units a year is billed $250.04, with $10.35 of its share already taken off. See the example bill, or how to read your bill.
We give you a clear rate and show you what’s included before you sign, with no obligation to go ahead. If we increase your rate, you can leave without a break fee.
Calculator
Your share · The agreement and fees
Enter your address →
