The government is pressing ahead with changes designed to drive down power prices, including a ban on companies offering last-minute deals to dissuade people from going elsewhere. It is also promising new restrictions on the major power generators requiring them to sell electricity "at affordable rates" to smaller retailers through the wholesale market. Residential power prices have risen almost 50 percent since the year 2000 and more quickly than for industrial and commercial users. In one of the most significant changes for power companies, the large "gentailers" - companies which both generate and sell electricity - are to have limits imposed on the price they can sell electricity into the wholesale market. Retail competition between 40 power companies is driving innovation and keeping prices down," ERANZ Chief Executive Cameron Burrows said.

Source: Otago Daily Times October 02, 2019 23:48 UTC