Electric Kiwi MoveMaster Solar Plan Explained

Electric Kiwi's MoveMaster plan gives you a free Hour of Power every day (one off-peak hour where your grid electricity costs you nothing) plus a time-of-use rate structure with cheaper overnight and off-peak windows. For a solar-and-battery household, the real trick isn't the solar export rate, which sits modestly around 12.5 cents per kWh on Electric Kiwi's published solar buy-back (check their live rate, as it moves); it's stacking the free hour and the cheap off-peak window to charge your battery from the grid, then running your house off that stored power through the expensive evening peak. Done properly, that arbitrage can be worth more to your annual bill than the panels alone. Here's exactly how to make it pencil out.

Most people sign up to a solar plan thinking the magic is in selling power back to the grid. On MoveMaster, that's the smallest piece of the puzzle. The plan was built for time-shifting, and a home battery turns time-shifting into a genuine money-maker. The catch: it only works if you set it up deliberately. Leave the defaults on and you'll leave real money on the table.

What MoveMaster actually is

MoveMaster is one of Electric Kiwi's time-of-use plans. Your day is split into pricing windows, and the price you pay for grid power changes depending on when you use it. The headline features that matter for solar households are:

• The Hour of Power: one hour every day, chosen by you from the available off-peak slots, where grid electricity is free. Not discounted, free.
• Off-peak and night rates: meaningfully lower than peak. Overnight power is the lowest-priced grid electricity you'll buy all day.
• Peak windows: the expensive bit, typically weekday mornings (roughly 7am to 9am) and evenings (roughly 5pm to 9pm), when the whole country is cooking dinner and the grid is straining.
• A solar export (buy-back) rate: what they pay you for surplus solar you push back to the grid.

Exact times and rates vary by network region and change over time, so always confirm the current numbers on Electric Kiwi's own plan page before you commit. The structure, though, is what we're working with, and the structure is what you optimise around.

Why the export rate is the least interesting number

Here's the thing the industry rarely says plainly: in New Zealand, solar buy-back rates are low because the wholesale value of power at midday (when your panels are flat out) is low. Everyone's solar is generating at once, so that energy isn't worth much to the grid. Electric Kiwi's solar rate of around 12.5c/kWh is fairly typical of the flat buy-back camp. Some retailers pay more at certain times; we walk through who pays what, and when, in our rundown of NZ solar tariffs and retailers.

The point is this: every kWh you export earns you about 12.5c. Every kWh you use yourself instead of buying it at the peak rate saves you 35c to 45c or more. Self-consumption is worth roughly three times what export is worth. That single fact should drive your entire strategy on MoveMaster.

The real play: grid arbitrage with a battery

This is the bit competitors gloss over. On a flat-rate plan, a battery only ever stores your own solar to use later. On a time-of-use plan like MoveMaster, your battery becomes a small energy trader. You can buy power when it's low-priced (or free), store it, and use it when it would otherwise be expensive. That's arbitrage, and it works even in the depths of a Central Otago winter when your panels are producing next to nothing.

The maths is simple and powerful. Consider the price gap on a typical MoveMaster day:

• Hour of Power: 0c/kWh
• Overnight off-peak: roughly 17c to 20c/kWh (confirm current rate)
• Peak: roughly 35c to 45c/kWh (confirm current rate)

Every kWh you charge into the battery overnight at ~18c and then use during the evening peak instead of buying at ~40c saves you about 22c per kWh. Every kWh you store during the free Hour of Power and use at peak saves you the full peak rate. For a home with a 10kWh usable battery, that gap repeated 365 days a year adds up fast.

A worked example: a Christchurch household on Orion's network

Take a four-bedroom home in Halswell, Christchurch, on the Orion network, with a 6kW solar array and a 10kWh battery. Their weekday evening (5pm to 9pm) is their heaviest usage: heat pump running, oven on, two kids, the dryer going. Call it 8kWh across that peak window in winter.

Without a battery, that 8kWh costs roughly 8 × 40c = $3.20 a day at peak. Over a 90-day winter that's about $288 just for evenings.

With a battery charged overnight at off-peak rates (8kWh × 18c = $1.44) and discharged through the peak, the same evening costs $1.44. That's a saving of about $1.76 a day, or roughly $158 across the winter, purely from time-shifting grid power. And that's before you add a cent of solar. In summer, your panels do the charging for free during the day and the battery carries the evening, so the saving shifts but doesn't disappear.

This is the insight installers rarely volunteer: on MoveMaster, your battery earns its keep year round, not just in the sunny months. A battery on a flat-rate plan sits there doing very little on a grey July day. On MoveMaster, that same battery is busy buying low-priced night power and dodging the peak every single evening.

How to actually set it up

The strategy only works if your battery is told what to do. Most modern hybrid inverters and battery systems (Tesla Powerwall, Sungrow, GoodWe, Huawei, Fronius with a compatible battery) support time-of-use charging schedules. You program the windows. Here's the logic to give your installer:

1. Charge from the grid during the lowest-priced window

Set the battery to charge from the grid overnight during the off-peak window, and to top up during your Hour of Power. In winter, when solar is thin, this is where most of your stored energy comes from. Aim to have the battery full by the time the morning peak (around 7am) begins.

2. Pick your Hour of Power for maximum value

You choose when your free hour falls. The instinct is to put it somewhere convenient. The smarter move is to put it where it does the most work for your battery. If your battery isn't quite full after the overnight charge, schedule the Hour of Power for a slot just before the morning or evening peak and use it to top the battery up for free. A full battery going into the evening peak is the goal.

If your household has a big controllable load (an EV, a hot water cylinder on a timer, a dishwasher), you can alternatively aim the Hour of Power at that load and let the battery handle the peak. There's no single right answer; it depends on whether your battery or your appliances are the bigger lever in your home.

3. Hold the battery for the peak, then discharge hard

Set the battery to not discharge during off-peak hours. There's no point burning stored energy when grid power is low-priced anyway. Reserve the battery's discharge for the morning and evening peak windows, when each kWh it supplies is saving you 35c to 45c. This single setting (peak-only discharge) is the difference between a battery that pays for itself and one that just smooths things out.

4. Let solar do the daytime charging in summer

From roughly October to March, your panels will refill the battery during the day for free. Your overnight grid charging can be dialled back or switched off in the sunny months. A well-configured system reads the season automatically if it has solar-forecast features; otherwise you adjust the schedule twice a year.

The EV angle, if you've got one

If you drive an EV, MoveMaster gets even more interesting. Charging a car overnight at off-peak rates is one of the single biggest savings in the whole NZ electricity market right now. A typical EV needs around 15kWh to 18kWh per 100km (per the figures EECA publishes for electric vehicles). Charging that overnight at ~18c rather than at a peak rate of ~40c roughly halves your running cost per kilometre.

Do not charge your EV from your home battery. That's a common and expensive mistake. Your home battery holds maybe 10kWh; an EV wants several times that, and you'd drain your peak-shaving reserve in one go. Charge the car directly from the grid overnight on its own schedule, and keep the home battery for covering the house through the peak.

Where MoveMaster does not stack up

Honesty time. MoveMaster's arbitrage play only works if three things are true, and if they're not, you may be better on a different plan or no battery at all.

• You need a battery. Without storage, MoveMaster is just a time-of-use plan. It can still suit a household that naturally uses power off-peak (works from home, runs appliances on timers, charges an EV overnight), but the headline strategy here leans on a battery.
• Your peak usage has to be meaningful. If you're out all evening, eat out a lot, or have a tiny, well-insulated home with low evening draw, the peak you're avoiding is small, and so is the saving. The arbitrage value is proportional to how much you'd otherwise spend at peak.
• Battery cost has to be in proportion. A 10kWh battery in NZ runs roughly $10,000 to $16,000 installed in 2025 depending on brand and inverter (per current NZ installer pricing). If your annual time-shift saving is $250 to $450, the battery alone is a long payback on those savings. Batteries make more sense when you value backup during outages, when you're maximising self-consumption of solar, and when arbitrage is the cream on top, not the whole case.

If you're weighing up whether a battery is worth it at all on your usage, run your own numbers through our tariff and buy-back engine before you sign anything. It lets you compare what different plans would actually do to your bill.

The buy-back rate trap to watch

Here's a quiet catch. Because MoveMaster's flat export rate is modest, a household with a big array and not much daytime use might earn more on a plan that pays a premium for export at certain times. Some retailers have built plans specifically to reward exporting power into the peak. Octopus Energy's OctopusPeaker and OctopusFlexi plans take a different approach, and Ecotricity's Resi-Flex peak export plan pays a sharper rate for energy you send back during peak windows. Meridian also runs structured buy-back plans worth comparing, which we cover in our breakdown of Meridian's solar plans.

The right plan depends on whether your household is a net exporter at peak (you generate more than you use and want to be paid well for it) or a net consumer at peak (you use a lot in the evening and want to avoid buying it). MoveMaster rewards the avoider. A peak-export plan rewards the exporter. Knowing which one you are is the whole game.

A simple decision path

Run through these questions honestly:

• Do you have, or will you have, a home battery? If no, MoveMaster's main advantage is limited; look at whether your usage naturally falls off-peak.
• Is your evening peak usage high (heat pump, cooking, kids, EV)? If yes, the time-shifting saving on MoveMaster is real and ongoing.
• Is your roof big and your daytime occupancy low? If yes, you might earn more from a peak-export plan than from avoiding peak. Compare both.
• Do you drive an EV? If yes, the overnight off-peak charging alone can justify the plan.

What to ask your installer

If you're buying a battery with MoveMaster in mind, make these non-negotiable when you get quotes:

• "Does this battery and inverter support time-of-use charge and discharge scheduling?" If the answer is vague, walk. You need granular control over when it charges from the grid and when it discharges.
• "Can it grid-charge during a set window?" Some lower-spec systems will only ever charge from solar. That kills the overnight arbitrage stone dead.
• "Will you set up the initial time-of-use schedule for the MoveMaster windows?" A good installer does this as part of commissioning. Get it in writing.
• "What's the round-trip efficiency?" Batteries lose a little energy in the charge-discharge cycle (usually 5% to 10%). Factor that into your arbitrage maths; it slightly narrows the price gap.

When you're comparing quotes, that scheduling capability matters as much as the panel brand. We line homeowners up with three quotes from installers we've vetted, so you can ask these questions of people who'll actually answer them straight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Hour of Power genuinely free?

Yes. During your chosen Hour of Power, the energy you draw from the grid is charged at zero cents per kWh by Electric Kiwi. You still pay daily fixed charges and lines costs as normal, but the energy in that hour is free. The smart move is to load as much shiftable demand (battery charging, hot water, dishwasher) into that hour as you can.

Can I really make money charging my battery off-peak?

You don't make money in the sense of profit; you save it. By charging at the off-peak rate (around 18c/kWh) and using that energy during the peak (around 40c/kWh) instead of buying it then, you avoid roughly 22c per kWh. Across a year that's real money, but it's avoided cost, not income.

How much can MoveMaster save a battery household per year?

It depends heavily on your peak usage, but a household avoiding 6kWh to 8kWh of peak power most evenings can save in the rough range of $250 to $450 a year from time-shifting alone, on top of any solar self-consumption and export. Use the buy-back engine with your own figures to get a number specific to your home.

Should I charge my EV from my home battery?

No. An EV's battery is several times larger than a typical home battery, so charging the car from your home storage would empty your peak-shaving reserve almost instantly. Charge the EV directly from the grid overnight on the off-peak rate, and keep the home battery for carrying the house through the evening peak.

Do I need solar to benefit from MoveMaster?

No. A battery alone on MoveMaster can do useful grid arbitrage, buying low-priced night power and avoiding the peak. Adding solar simply means free daytime charging in the sunny months, which strengthens the case. Even a household with no battery and no solar can save if their usage naturally falls in off-peak and free hours.

Will MoveMaster zero my power bill?

No, and be wary of anyone who suggests it might. You'll still pay daily fixed charges and lines costs, and you'll still buy grid power in winter when solar is low. MoveMaster plus a battery sharply reduces the energy portion of your bill, especially the expensive peak slice, but a grid-tied home always has a bill.

Is the solar export rate on MoveMaster competitive?

It's modest, around 12.5c/kWh, which is typical of flat buy-back rates in NZ. If your home exports a lot of surplus at peak times, a plan that pays a premium for peak export might suit you better. The right choice depends on whether you mainly avoid buying at peak or mainly sell at peak.

How do I choose the best time for my Hour of Power?

Aim it where it adds the most value. If your battery isn't full after overnight charging, place the free hour just before a peak window and use it to top the battery up at no cost. If you've a big appliance load instead, point the free hour at that. The goal is a full battery and the least possible grid draw during peak.

The Bottom Line

MoveMaster isn't really a solar plan; it's a time-shifting plan that happens to handle solar. The free Hour of Power and the gap between off-peak and peak rates are the levers, and a battery is the tool that pulls them. If your household uses a lot of power in the evening, a well-configured battery on MoveMaster can quietly save you a few hundred dollars a year, all year, not just in summer. If you barely use power at peak, or you have a big exporting array, another plan may serve you better.

Before you commit, get clear on whether you're an avoider or an exporter, and compare the numbers properly. Our overview of NZ tariffs and retailers is the place to get your bearings, and if a battery is on your shortlist, make sure any installer you talk to can program it for the MoveMaster windows. That one capability is what turns a battery from a nice-to-have into a genuine money-saver.