Wellington Electricity Lines

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Dratsab

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# 141030 27-Feb-2014 16:21

I received a letter from my electricity supplier, Contact, in my mailbox today:

Costs charged to us by your local lines company Wellington Electricity Lines have changed. Wellington Electricity Lines distributes electricity from the national grid through their network to homes and businesses around your area.

As a result the price you pay for your electricity from Contact will change from 1 April 2014. So your next bill after this date will reflect your new price.

Please refer to the table on the following page for details.

The table on the reverse of this letter is as follows (modified by me to be more suited to typing in this forum):

Rate Type Current Rates New Rates
Daily Charge 112.1 cents/day 201.8 cents/day
All Day Economy 23.51 cents/kWh 21.287 cents/kWh

Nice that the kWh rate is coming down a little, but a near doubling of the daily charge - AYFKM?? The daily charge currently makes up $34.75 of a 31 day invoice. That's about to blow out to $62.56...

My area, as referred to in the letter, is Tawa. Anyone else in the Wellington region, not just Tawa, got letters like this from their electricity supplier? (whether Contact or not)

I think this is going to need a bit of digging into to find out how much the price has "changed" and how much margin is being applied...

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# 995593 27-Feb-2014 16:22

One person supports this post

christ thats a nice jump

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Dratsab

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# 995594 27-Feb-2014 16:23

One person supports this post

Not for me :-O

l43a2

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# 995597 27-Feb-2014 16:24

One person supports this post

Dratsab: Not for me :-O

let me re word that "christ what a joke"

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knoydart

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# 995606 27-Feb-2014 16:31

Whist leaving the house this morning in Hataitai, I noticed something similar in a letter from Mercury that came with the latest power bill (I think are a mighty river sub brand).

I'll have a look later tonight to confirm but sure there was line which was along the lines of "Mercury will not raise its prices until 2015" but the lines charges were being increased - hmmm.

wongtop

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# 995612 27-Feb-2014 16:37

Yeah I had the same letter from Mercury. We are not increasing the energy component of the charge blah blah, here's the increase in lines charges. I took the opportunity to jump ship to Meridian. Bracing myself for the same letter from them.

sbiddle

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# 995619 27-Feb-2014 16:47

wongtop: Yeah I had the same letter from Mercury. We are not increasing the energy component of the charge blah blah, here's the increase in lines charges. I took the opportunity to jump ship to Meridian. Bracing myself for the same letter from them.

Meridian have already put power up by ~25% in the last year (I know as I'm with them).

kiwitrc

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# 995625 27-Feb-2014 16:57

I am on Genesis in Tawa and pay $1.01/day , maybe I better sign up for the 2 year deal with Genesis after all!

rscole86

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# 995648 27-Feb-2014 17:16

I have not checked my letter box, but I was woken up 10mins ago by trustpower trying to get me to sign up due to region increases. I guess this was what they were talking about.

TinyTim

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# 995651 27-Feb-2014 17:30

Got my letter from Meridian with similar changes today. Central Wellington.

Lazarui

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# 995655 27-Feb-2014 17:39

If you're looking for a deal that has a 'price freeze' read carefully this usually will only apply to the variable power usage (Your kw/h) not the fixed daily charge as this is usally just passed on from the lines companies (Those maintaining the physical infustructure in the area) and are generally not part of price fixing deals.

dwl

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# 995732 27-Feb-2014 19:00

There was an article in yesterday's DomPost (Feb 26, page A3) titled "Contact blames lines firms for hefty hike".

A key part of that article is:

Something seems wrong here ...

sbiddle

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# 995763 27-Feb-2014 20:11

Just got a letter from Meridian - daily charge is increasing from 115.00 to 210.83 per day

The c/kwh rate has dropped, but I'm still sure the increase will we significantly more than the 3% Meridian are claiming. Their words "your bill will increase by 3% over the next year it not specific to their charge.

wongtop

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# 995768 27-Feb-2014 20:24

sbiddle:
wongtop: Yeah I had the same letter from Mercury. We are not increasing the energy component of the charge blah blah, here's the increase in lines charges. I took the opportunity to jump ship to Meridian. Bracing myself for the same letter from them.

Meridian have already put power up by ~25% in the last year (I know as I'm with them).

I was going to say don't hold your breath. That 25% increase was the reason that I switched to MRP, who then slugged me with a 20% increase which took the electricity prices to more than if I had just stayed with Meridian in the first place. Then the increase which was to take place on 1 April would have made another 5% or so, so I went to Powerswitch and had a look. Looks like I am not going to end up saving much after Meridian's increase.

Its frustrating when you go to the effort to change, only to find that the company you are moving raises its prices a month or two later!

alasta

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# 995803 27-Feb-2014 21:06

Averaging over summer and winter I use about 320 kwh per month which costs me about $100. If my daily charge goes up by $1 per day then that's about a 30% increase in my monthly bill, bearing in mind that a small decrease in the unit rate will make stuff all difference in my case.

Considering the budget pressure that some people are under at the moment I'm surprised that this hasn't gained more media attention.

Dratsab

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# 995845 27-Feb-2014 21:40

Couple of quick figures here, assuming no further line charge rises:

Contact current yearly charge ($1.121 x 365) = $409.165
Contact charge from 01/04/14 ($2.018 x 365) = $736.57

Courtesy BiddleCorp:

Meridian current yearly charge ($1.15 x 365) = $419.75
Meridian charge from 01/04/14 ($2.1083 x 365) = $769.53

Thus, on 01 April 2014:
Charges from Contact will rise by $327.405 (+80.018%)
Charges from Meridian will rise by $349.78 (+83.33%)

I'll try to speak with someone relatively high powered tomorrow to see if they would be willing (under the promise of absolute and everlasting anonymity) to shed any light on what's really going on.

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