The country's only kaupapa Māori, social enterprise energy retailer says 130,000 households experience energy poverty, and it needs help to end that.
Nau Mai Rā was established a year ago. It is committed to turning no customer away, and pledges not to disconnect any home, even if a customer is struggling to pay bills.
A portion of each customer's power bill goes to "pay it forward" for others who may be struggling. Nau Mai Rā's founder, Ezra Hirawani - who won 2022 Young New Zealander of the Year - says, despite the energy retailer's best efforts, too many households are still experiencing energy hardship.
Photo: Supplied
He tells Nine to Noon the problem is worse this year than it was last year and will get worse still if energy poverty is not addressed structurally and energy consumption seen as a human right.
Hirawani said the business model was a simple one offering immediate, practical help to those families who need it.
“We look to charge whanau who come on board with us the same or less of what they pay now and instead of using the profit portion of the bill that would genuinely make us wealthy we decide to use that towards the whanau fund, that we then use to support struggling whanau to heat their homes.
“It’s a really basic and simple model, and something that we’ve seen work really well.”
For people who have had their power cut off the company is the retailer of last resort.
“There’s a lot of whanau out there who check their bill daily to make sure they won’t be disconnected. They live in a power paranoia where they don’t know if the lights are going to stay on or off.
“So, to be able to support them in different ways – it’s not always giving them a financial handout – it’s more about the education side and stepping in and being the solution for them when they need it most.”
Respiratory illnesses like Covid-19 were making the experiences of whanau worse, he says.
“The problem that we’re facing is if we don’t as an industry reframe the way we look at power, not as a community but more as a basic human right, the worse it’s going to get.
“The likelihood of a whanau member contracting a respiratory illness is much higher if they’re living in a cold, damp home and then if you extend that to recovering from that respiratory illness in a cold damp home the downward trajectory of that whanau also increases.”
For 130,000 families who can’t afford to pay their bills, the new power model offers a rebalance from a traditional corporate model that benefits most those who can afford to pay, while penalising those who can't, which reinforces existing social inequality.
“The tricky thing is those who can afford to pay for power, pay less than those who can’t," he says. "So, we decided the only thing we could control as individuals, as consumers and our position as Nau Mai Ra is how we use the power that we have.
“We’ve tried our best to, not call out but all in power industry to our waka to help us mitigate a lot of the things that our whanau are facing. But the most basic way we can go about solving the problem is by using the power of those who can afford to pay to support those who can’t.”
The percentage that goes towards the whanau fund to those who can’t afford to pay varies from household to household, he says. When the family comes in to discuss their needs a percentage amount is determined and the ability to track how much is going into the household through their dashboard.
“Our disconnection policy is don’t disconnect," he says.
Hirawani acknowledges there is a danger that some would take advantage of that model, but it hasn't been the company's experience.
“It’s a high trust model, but we haven’t found that. It’s interesting from our perspective how much good can be done when you’re willing to give the whanau that we deal with a second chance.”
Waitako resident Dawson Marama, joined Nau Mai Rā as a customer in order to help others.
"As soon as Nau Mai Ra was available I made the switch... for me it's inspiring and I want to be a part of that."
The company has a presence in 85 percent of the North Island and entering into the South Island market this year.
“We’re hoping to be everywhere across the country by the middle of next year at the latest.”
