Price Changes Indicated
Genesis Energy have indicated they will be increasing their standard Electricity pricing from January 7th 2020. In most cases by up to about 5 per cent.
The price increase are in spite of the aims of the Governments Electricity Price Review to lower customer pricing.
ENA chief executive Graeme Peters is concerned the reduced line charges and transmission fees due to come into effect as of April 2020 will not flow into consumers' pockets.
The Commerce Commission said that power bills should drop between $3 and $34 a month in most part of the country from April, as a result of new rulings that will reduce the revenues lines companies and Transpower can earn from their networks over the next five years.
But Genesis spokeswoman Kiely Evans said Genesis would be increasing its "standard electricity pricing" from January 7 "in most cases by up to about 5 per cent".
Genesis, which remains 51 per cent owned by the Government, said the "before and after" impact of its price rises would depend on the customer and the region. But on average, monthly bills in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch would go up by about $9.
Evans said Genesis had reviewed its pricing following an "extended period of higher than usual wholesale pricing", but they do also look forward to distributors (network companies) confirming the details of any price reductions, "would welcome any opportunity that would enable us to reduce customers' prices"
Peters said the Electricity Price Review ordered by the Government last year and published in October was supposed to lead to more affordable power prices "but that's not happening".
"Prices are going up – as we see with Genesis and possibly others. "Network companies will be sending lower bills to retailers from April, but more than $200 million of lines revenue reductions look like they won't go to consumers – they will instead end up in the pockets of generators."
Peters added that he felt for small retailers, as they were being squeezed by higher electricity generation costs and didn't have a natural hedge from generation.
Energy Minister Megan Woods said Genesis' decision was a commercial one. "Consumers will make their own decisions about power providers based on this, We've had reassurances from other power companies they have no immediate plans to follow suit".
However, Contact Energy’s chief customer officer Vena Crawley confirmed it had raised some prices over the past few weeks, also referring to higher wholesale costs."With the Commerce Commission announcement, we will be keeping an eye on each of the network companies' proposed changes for early next year. We don't yet know how this will impact our customers," he said.
Megan Woods has said "I'd encourage people to shop around if they aren't happy with their power company."
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