Privacy Policy

At Ecotricity, we are committed to keeping your power flowing and your privacy protected. Your personal information is important to us, and we treat it with the care it deserves.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect your personal information. It covers all of our products and services, including the Ecotricity app and all ways you engage with us.

This Policy applies to you as our customer, as well as anyone who uses our products and services under your account or contacts us about these things. If you decide to withdraw your consent for anything covered in the Policy, it may affect our ability to provide you with certain products or services.

We handle your information in line with the Privacy Act 2020.

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The Information We Collect

We collect information we need to provide reliable energy services and a powerful experience.
Information collected directly from you:

• Account details: name, address, contact details, date of birth, and identification (where required).
• Billing and payments: payment history, methods of payment and payment information, e.g bank account numbers where direct debits apply. All credit card payments are handled through Windcave as our secure payment platform.
• Communication records: calls, emails, chat messages, and any other correspondence relating to compliments, complaints or queries.
• Medically dependent or hardship assistance: information about your medical or financial situation if you need extra support, so we can manage your account in line with the Electricity Authority’s Consumer Care Obligations.
• Credit checks: when you sign up, we may ask for your consent to check your credit with agencies like Centrix or Illion.
• People you authorise: we also collect identity information and details regarding anyone you’ve given permission to help manage your account, such as authorities or alternate contacts, legal representatives or budgeting and accounting representatives.

Information collected indirectly:

We take care of the behind-the-scenes paperwork so you don’t get bogged down in the details. To do this, we gather the following information from agencies outside of Ecotricity:

• Our third-party partners: account details where you have initiated joining with us through a third-party partner or website.
• Other Energy retailers: account information, ICP number and consumption data. This helps us to provide information on pricing and plans best suited to your household.
• Lines agencies: account details including identifying customers who are medically dependent on power.
• Energy-use and smart meter data: meter readings, usage patterns, consumption data and connection details.
• Digital activity on our website and app: username, activity logs, IP address, browser type, as well as our online content you’ve viewed or engaged with before or after visiting our platforms.

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Cookies and Website Analytics

The techy stuff can be hard to understand, so we’ve crafted a recipe that can be easy to digest.

Cookies are like little notes that websites leave in your browser to remember things about you. Some cookies only last while you’re using your browser and disappear when you leave, while others stay on your device for a longer time.

We use website and app cookies and analytics tools to understand how people use our digital services and provide a more personalised experience.

Cookies allow the website to recognise your device each time you visit, providing you with a better experience because the site learns your preferences as you browse. Some types of cookies also perform essential functions to enhance how our site works. We use the following types of cookies:

• Cookies: cookies, pixels, beacons and other digital tracking tools across different devices to understand your use of our online services. These are Cloudflare, Facebook, Google Tag Manager, HubSpot and Sentry.
• Analytics: Google Analytics Free to track and monitor online behaviour and to improve the performance of our marketing efforts.
• Location: we may collect mobile device location identifiers where you approve.
• Third-party websites: when you visit a website that contains interactive Ecotricity content and/or any Ecotricity-branded social media pages, we may collect personal information about you, your household and the way you use apps and the other products and services that we provide.

You can adjust your browser settings to manage or block cookies, but this may affect your access to some site features.

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How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to help keep your energy running safely and smoothly. This includes:

• Setting up and looking after your energy connection, smart meter, and EV charging.
• Sending your bills and processing payments (including anything we send by snail mail).
• Keeping you updated about your plan, price changes, outages, energy use, or any updates to our terms.
• Sharing updates about our products, services, and special offers that we think may be of interest to you. If you’d rather not hear from us, you can unsubscribe at any time.
• Reaching out if your account is overdue, so we can work through payment options together.
• Sorting out any complaints or issues you might have.
• Helping protect you (and us) from fraud or energy theft.

We also use your information to:

• Keep improving our services and your overall experience.
• Manage our agreements with you and the partners we work with (like lines companies or metering equipment providers).

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How We Use Smart Meter Data

Your smart meter helps us deliver accurate, efficient, and reliable energy services. Here’s how we use the data it provides:

• Accurate billing: Smart meters automatically send regular readings, so your bills reflect actual usage rather than estimates.
• Network reliability: usage data helps us work with your network company to detect outages and manage supply.
• System improvement and compliance: aggregated and anonymised smart meter data helps us meet our obligations under the Electricity Industry Participation Code and improve our services.
• Fraud Detection, Energy-Theft Prevention and Profiling: analysing consumption patterns and meter data to help us spot and prevent energy-theft and meter tampering.
• Trials or projects: where you have opted-in and agreed for your data to be shared.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Being transparent with our customers about how we use their information is important to us. We use artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including machine learning and generative AI, to support and enhance our products, services, and internal operations.

AI may be used for purposes such as:

• Improving service delivery and user experience.
• Automating routine processes.
• Analysing data to generate insights.
• Providing customer support (including AI-powered chat or virtual assistants).

Where AI systems process personal information, we ensure such processing is conducted in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. We implement appropriate technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information and promote accuracy, fairness, transparency, and accountability in AI-assisted processing.

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Sharing Your Information

Sometimes we share your information to help keep everything running smoothly. This includes sharing your account details with:

• Other companies in the Ecotricity and Genesis Energy family (Genesis, Frank, Ecotricity, and ChargeNet), who use it in the same way we do.
• If we sell all or part of our business to another company, and you are or might become their customer
• Debt collection agencies (like Illion or InDebted) if there’s outstanding money owing on your account.
• Field service providers or contractors, so they can manually read your meter or provide necessary to customers who rely on electricity for medical reasons or have important equipment that needs power.

Where we are mandated

• We may share information with the National Cyber Security Centre or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner if there’s a cyber security or privacy incident. This helps us respond quickly and protect our systems from unauthorised access.
• We may also share information with industry regulators or bodies like the Electricity Authority, the Commerce Commission, the Utilities Dispute Limited Scheme when we need to meet our legal or regulatory obligations.
• In some cases, we may share information with law enforcement or government agencies to support legal requests, investigations, or to help prevent, detect, or prosecute crime. This is only done when allowed under the Privacy Act 2020 or required by law. These agencies include the Department of Internal Affairs | Te Tari Taiwhenua, Ministry of Social Development | Te Manatū Whakahiato Ora, Inland Revenue Department | Te Tari Taake, New Zealand Customs Service | Te Mana Ārai o Aotearoa, and New Zealand Police | Nga Pirihimana O Aotearoa.

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Our Role with Lines Companies

We are required to share certain information with your local lines company under the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010. These rules or agreements allow us to deliver power to your home or business and maintain the electricity network.

We securely share the following information with your local lines company and associated contractors:

• Your contact and account details, including your ICP number.
• Whether anyone at your property relies on electricity for medical reasons, so they can take extra care during outages.
• Detailed electricity usage (half-hourly meter data), if requested by the lines company.

Your lines company may use this information to:

• Let you know about planned outages.
• Respond safely to unexpected outages.
• Manage network-related faults.
• Calculate network charges.
• Plan and improve the electricity network.
• Meet their regulatory and contractual requirements.
• Where relevant, enable the distribution of dividends.

You can find out who your lines company is by visiting Your meter | Electricity Authority.
For more information about how your lines company will use your information, please contact your lines company direct.

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Our Role with Metering Equipment Providers

We work with metering equipment providers to support the supply, measurement, and management of energy services at your property. Under the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 and related industry agreements, we may need to securely share certain information with these parties so they can provide metering services and maintain metering equipment.

We may securely share the following information with your metering equipment provider and associated service providers:
• Your contact and account details, including your ICP number.
• Information about your metering installation and equipment at your property, including any risks or hazards.
• Electricity consumption and generation data, including half-hourly meter data where applicable.
• Information relevant to meter installation, maintenance, testing, certification, fault resolution, and upgrades.
• Information needed to support billing validation, switching, reconciliation, and regulatory compliance.

Your metering equipment provider may use this information to:
• Install, maintain, inspect, repair, replace, and upgrade metering equipment.
• Collect, validate, and provide metering data.
• Respond to meter faults or service issues.
• Support billing, reconciliation, and market settlement processes.
• Help detect outages, energy losses, tampering, or safety issues.
• Meet their regulatory, contractual, and industry code obligations.
• Support the safe and reliable operation of the electricity system.
For more information about how your metering equipment provider uses your information, please visit their website or contact them directly.

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Keeping Your Information Safe

We take security seriously.

We take reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect is protected against loss, unauthorised access and disclosure or any other misuse.

We protect your information through a range of measures, including:

• Encrypting data at rest and using certified data centres.
• Encrypting data in transit and using secure methods to send and receive data from third-party providers.
• Controlled access through role-based access where access is logged and audited.
• Using logging and monitoring tools to look for suspicious or malicious activity.
• Implementing staff confidentiality obligations.
• Undertaking regular reviews and audits of our security practices.

What you can do

To help with our efforts to keep your personal information safe, we ask you to:

• Keep unique account information (such as your account number, log-in and password details) secure. Don’t share them with anyone.
• Always select strong, unique passwords. Don’t reuse them from other services or platforms, and don’t re-use them on other services or platforms.

If a privacy breach occurs, we’ll act quickly to contain it and let you know if your information may be at risk and you are at risk of serious harm.

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How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep your personal information only for as long as it’s needed or as long we are required to meet our regulatory obligations.
Where information is collected in accordance with the Electricity Authority’s Consumer Care Obligations, we are required to retain this information for five (5) years after your account with us has been closed.

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Access and Correction

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.
• Access consumer data in accordance with the Electricity Participation Code 2010.
• Ask us to correct any information that’s wrong or incomplete.

To do this, contact us using the details below. We’ll respond as soon as reasonably practicable, in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.

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Contact Us

We take privacy questions and complaints seriously and will work to resolve these issues with you.
Please contact us via email if:
• we have given information that you think is not appropriate
• your personal information has been revealed to someone else
• we are holding information about you that’s wrong
• you’re concerned about how your information is stored
• your personal details have been shared with another organisation without your consent
We will do our best to respond quickly. If your case is particularly tricky our investigations may need additional time, and we will contact you to provide an update on our timeframes.
If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Helpful information

You can find more information about our policies and your personal information in our residential terms of use and our commercial terms of use.

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Ch-ch-ch-changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, with our latest version here.
Our Privacy Policy was last updated on 27 August 2026 .

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Collection from Third Parties

In some circumstances, we may collect your personal information from, or share it with, third parties. We take reasonable steps to keep this list accurate and current, however, it may not always be complete or free from error. We may update this list from time to time by publishing a revised version on our website, and we encourage you to review it periodically.