Learn about how the Garden City gets all its energy and why more than 40,000 Cantabrians choose Meridian to power their homes and businesses.
Where does Canterbury’s power come from? What’s it like to run an EV around Christchurch? And is solar energy a good call? Welcome to our guide on Christchurch’s power.
If you’re simply looking for a new power provider for your home or business, here’s why we’re the choice for so many in the Canterbury region:
Power your home or business on your terms with our flexible Freedom Plan or enjoy price certainty with our Fixed Rate Plan. Tailor your energy plan to fit your needs. We offer options for EV owners and a competitive solar buy-back rate.
Our EV plans make home and business charging easy and convenient. To help when you're out and about, join Zero – one of the country's largest EV charging networks powered by Meridian, with more than 300 charge points.
We’re dedicated to making a positive impact in our communities. From the Kākāpō Recovery Programme to supporting KidsCan and communities that are striving to do good things with our Community Decarbonisation Fund, we invest in initiatives that matter.
Meridian has a strong presence in the Canterbury region – not only is it where you’ll find our helpful customer care team in our largest office, it’s also home to the Waitaki hydro scheme – eight power stations spanning from Lake Tekapo to Lake Waitaki. We own and operate six of these stations that collectively produce enough energy to power more than 830,000 typical New Zealand homes. We’re proud to be contributing 100% renewable energy. You can learn more about this scheme and its history here.
Within the Waitaki Valley is Aviemore Hydro Station. This dam generates enough energy to keep more than 100,000 homes powered all year. Aviemore is the second largest concrete dam in New Zealand and is made up of both concrete and earth parts.
Also in the Waitaki Valley, is Waitaki hydro station that powers up to 51,000 average Kiwi homes.
Then there’s our largest Waitaki Valley hydro station, Benmore hydro station. Located on Lake Benmore, it generates as much as 552 megawatts that can power almost 300,000 homes.
Within South Canterbury sits the Mackenzie Basin. This is where three hydro stations, Ōhau A, Ōhau B and Ōhau C are located. Ōhau A generates the most energy with enough to power around 144,000 homes.
The Waitaki Valley is home to many Meridian hydro stations.
Christchurch is lucky to have a mild climate thanks to being so close to the ocean. Summers are often warm and dry, although the famous northeasterly winds can still cool things down. But when the wind blows in from the northwest, it can bring some warmer temps to the city.
Christchurch also enjoys some serious sun with more than 2,100 sunshine hours per year.
Winter in the Garden City can get chilly, although snowfall is more common up in the hills. Average temps sit around 11°C, but anyone who’s lived in Christchurch knows there are certainly times when it hits an icy 0°C.
What does this mean for power usage? For those really hot and dry days, air conditioning is put to work. When winter rolls around, power demand and costs increase as Cantabrians reach for the heater. Good insulation and double glazing can really help control internal temperature, meaning less time relying on heaters or A/C to achieve a comfy home sitting at 18-20°C.
Christchurch really deserves its nickname as the Garden City
While some may not immediately think of Canterbury when they picture a solar panel, the region’s relatively high annual sunshine and mild temperatures make it a good place to have solar panels.
With all that sunshine and a reasonably flat topography, Christchurch could be a great choice for installing solar panels to your home or business.
Whether solar is the right investment for you is an important question to consider. It's getting cheaper as it becomes more popular, but it's still a big price tag for equipment and installation.
Solar power is a great choice if you want to use less electricity from the grid, and even pay less for it. Just make sure you consider how long it'll take to ‘pay back’ the cost of the system by saving money on your power bill.
In the last few years more electric vehicles have charged onto Aotearoa's roads – with the EV rebate period playing a crucial role in boosting their popularity. As of April 2024, 74,300 EVs were registered and this number is set to rise as more manufacturers add EVs to their range – some even replacing petrol and diesel vehicles. Canterbury is one of the more popular regions for electric cars. 38% of all cars registered in Lyttelton during 2023 were in the EV or PHEV category.
If you’re thinking about going electric, or have recently purchased one and live in Christchurch, it’s a smart choice. The city’s becoming more welcoming for EV drivers with new charging stations and the council adding more off-street parking spaces in new developments.
If you're often caught in Christchurch's traffic, an EV might be perfect for you. While petrol and diesel vehicles churn through fuel when idling or moving slowly, EVs are much more efficient when you're stuck in rush hour.
Our network of charging stations across Christchurch make public top-ups easy.
If you’re building a new home or working on a development of multiple dwellings, it's a good idea to get your utilities lined up early.
Make sure to give your lines company (Orion) a heads up and get consent for connection points and the works involved. You might have a project manager who can help you with this.
If you’re a customer of Meridian, let us know and we can support you to arrange a power meter to be installed along sorting out billing and connection dates.
The work will be done by your lines company that will have quoted on the ‘network extension’ job, which will then be completed by a contractor.
If you're experiencing a power outage in Christchurch or wider Canterbury, the best thing to do is check with your lines company. They'll often have up-to-date information about unplanned or planned maintenance. If there’s no known fault and you’re the only one of your neighbours without power, give us a call for help. It may be that a qualified electrician needs to check your mains box.
Businesses of all sizes across Christchurch and wider Canterbury are powered by Meridian. We have a dedicated team and tailored power plans to suit your business.
Do you want to have EV charging for your team, fleet or customers? We can take care of the entire process for you.
Adding solar to your business can lower your power bills, offer renewable production processes and provide peace of mind through outages. Talk to us about how we can help solar power your business.
Learn more about how we power important initiatives in Christchurch and the wider region.
In 2021, we launched Forever Forests, with a plan to plant up to 1.5 million native and hardwood trees to offset Meridian's net carbon emissions.
Canterbury's Tūī Corridor is part of this programme. Between the Port Hills and Christchurch City you’ll find intensive planting of kōwhai and harakeke, which is slowly bringing the tūī song back to the city.
Learn more about our Forever Forest programme and Tūī Corridor.
Satisfy Food Rescue distributes free, surplus food that's destined for landfill or animal feed to almost 50 places across North Canterbury and Christchurch, such as food banks, community groups and schools.
Satisfy received support from Meridian's Community Decarbonisation Fund, which provided an EV van for their fleet. Since purchasing the van in 2024, they’ve managed to rescue 49% more food.
Learn more about our fund here.
Got questions? Our team is here to help. Let’s talk about a quote or a power plan that’s tailored just for you.