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I run a café with a small team. Food and power costs are squeezing margins, customers are spending less, and we've experienced a break-in. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. What would parties do about electricity costs for small businesses?
For a café, the key distinction is between policies aimed at lowering the underlying wholesale/lines cost of electricity and direct help for small businesses with their bills. As of 5 October 2026, the major parties are taking quite different approaches.
Electricity plans that matter to a small café
| Party | Main approach to electricity | What it could mean for a café |
|---|---|---|
| National | Build more generation, increase competition, reform lines charges, speed up connections and renewables, and make electricity pricing more transparent. Its new Electrify NZ 2.0 plan would make affordability a statutory objective for the Electricity Authority and require small-business solar connections to be approved within two working days. Affordable power Kiwis can rely on | National Party | Primarily lower costs indirectly through greater supply/competition and lower network costs. Particularly relevant if you want solar or need a new/altered connection. |
| Labour | Make electricity more affordable through more solar, batteries and distributed generation. Its SolarSaver provides government-backed low-interest finance and grants, although the headline subsidies are principally for households. Labour would also make excessive pricing by companies with significant market power illegal, explicitly including energy. Release: Labour to make power bills more affordable with SolarSaver | Potentially useful if your premises can install solar/battery, but there isn't currently a comparable café-specific electricity subsidy. Its price-gouging proposal targets large companies, not small businesses. |
| Greens | A much larger restructuring: establish publicly owned Kiwipower, invest in renewable generation and firming, provide zero-interest clean-energy loans, support community energy, and guarantee fair export prices for businesses and households with rooftop solar. Power for all of us - Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand | Could eventually affect the underlying electricity price and gives businesses with solar a specific benefit. The bigger change is structural rather than a direct bill rebate. |
| ACT | Increase electricity supply through private investment, open networks to competition, let customers choose who buys their electricity, allow competing contractors for connections, and make lines companies demonstrate that expensive upgrades are worthwhile before charging customers. ACT New Zealand | Similar to National in relying heavily on more supply and competition, with potentially useful changes for a business installing solar or upgrading its connection. |
| NZ First | Break up the large “gentailers” into separate generation and retail businesses; introduce long-term contracts for new generation; prevent generators from withholding supply; and let people selling solar receive the same price they pay for electricity. Our Policy - NZ First | The most direct attempt among these parties to change the structure of the electricity market itself. The intended benefit for businesses is lower wholesale prices and more competition. |
| Opportunity | Increase renewable generation, reform the electricity market, consolidate electricity distributors, and use government-owned gentailer profits to fund energy investment and electrification. It also proposes an Industry Energy Resilience Fund for businesses undertaking electrification, including grid connections and network upgrades. Abundant Energy - The Opportunity Party | Particularly relevant if you're considering replacing gas equipment with electric equipment or making a substantial energy-efficiency/electrification investment. |
The practical differences for your café
If your immediate problem is the monthly power bill, none of the major parties appears to be offering a simple, universal "small-business electricity rebate" comparable to what a café owner might be looking for. The parties are mostly betting on changing the market, increasing supply, reducing network costs, or helping businesses generate their own electricity.
If you could put solar on the café, the differences become more tangible. National wants faster small-business solar connections and the ability to sell electricity to whichever retailer offers the best deal. Labour and the Greens also want to make distributed solar easier, while the Greens specifically promise fair export pricing for businesses. ACT similarly wants greater freedom to sell generated electricity. Affordable power Kiwis can rely on | National Party
If you're worried about the wholesale price, National and ACT emphasise building more generation and attracting private investment. NZ First proposes structural separation of generation and retailing. The Greens propose Kiwipower as a public generator/investor. Opportunity combines substantial renewable investment with electricity-market and distributor reform. Affordable power Kiwis can rely on | National Party
One other potentially relevant point: the current government has already introduced Open Electricity, intended to let households and small businesses securely access their consumption data and compare electricity plans. The government says about 165,000 small-business customers will benefit, with implementation beginning in 2026 and completion scheduled for mid-2027. Making it easier to find cheap power plans | National Party
How I'd translate this into questions for your own vote
Given that you're running a café, I'd compare parties on four very concrete questions:
- Will my electricity bill actually fall, or is the promise mainly about building generation several years from now?
- Can my business get affordable finance/help to install solar and batteries?
- What happens to lines charges, which can be a substantial part of a commercial power bill?
- If electricity prices remain high, is there any direct protection for a small business—or am I expected to absorb the cost?
Those questions produce some fairly substantial policy differences without requiring you to decide based on party slogans. And electricity is only one part of your situation: given the food-cost squeeze and break-in you've experienced, small-business tax, employment costs, food-market competition and crime policy could materially affect the café too. I can compare the 2026 parties across those issues in the same café-owner framework if useful.
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Captured 5 October 2026 · shown as ChatGPT gave it, not a verified account