After 18 months of being unable to take on new customers, kaupapa Māori power retailer Nau Mai Rā has reopened its doors with a mission to grow its Whānau Fund.
The retailer was previously forced to pause new sign-ups due to a volatile wholesale market that made it impossible to secure affordable power.
Now, a first-of-its-kind five-year deal provides the stability needed to expand the Whānau Fund, a social initiative that redirects power profits back to families in need, through a new partnership called the Pool of Power.
The timing is critical, as recent Stats NZ figures show electricity prices surged 12.2% in the final quarter of 2025.
What is the Pool of Power?
The Pool of Power is a five-year supply agreement designed to stabilize the market for care-based retailers.
It is a partnership between social electricity reseller For Our Good and New Zealand’s four major “gentailers”: Meridian, Genesis, Mercury, and Contact.
These major companies set aside a stable supply of wholesale power, which For Our Good then on-sells to Nau Mai Rā and other retailers operating with a whānau-first lens.
The Care-Based Model
The deal allows Nau Mai Rā to double its customer base to 15,000, which directly fuels the Whānau Fund.
Co-founder Ezra Hirawani says the five-year window is a chance to prove to the industry that a care-based model is a viable way to tackle power poverty.
“It is a better way of shifting a lot of the profits that are made here in Aotearoa when it comes to power,” Hirawani says.
”What we do with our power and our profits is send it to the people and places that need it the most.”
This model is the first of its kind in New Zealand.
Originally started within Nau Mai Rā, it takes a portion of every customer’s power bill and redirects it to households facing extreme energy hardship.
To ensure transparency and reach, the Whānau Fund has since been established as an independent entity, managed by its own trust and board.
For customers like Kurt and Nicole Kara, owners of CrissFit Kotahi in Hamilton, the model offers a dual purpose.
They can access the fund if their business hits a rough patch, or simply contribute through their regular bill to support others.
“Ko tērā te mea nui ki ahau (that is the most important thing to me) is that we pay our power bill and it gives back to all our whānau, our hapori, and our iwi,” says Kurt.
A recent success of the model saw a donation of $16,602.52 made to Butterbean Motivation to support their mission of helping whānau in need.
Over the next five years, Nau Mai Rā will use this timeframe to provide regulators with an exemplar of how care-based models work in real-time.
The goal is to provide the data needed to show that a care-based model can successfully work toward the ultimate mission: ending power poverty for good.
