tripper1000:

 

Meridian own the power station and the rights to the water. They can sell the power to whom ever they choose and what ever price they agree. Return on investment criteria is between the Meridian board and shareholders. Dream on if you thing Meridian is going to give Joe-public cheap electricity.

 

Transpower is Govt owned and required to be cost neutral. The way they are recovering their costs is unbalanced. They are not mandated to gouge one user to benefit others.

 

The Govt blocked Rio from investing in its own power lines which is Cartel like behaviour.

 

The original builders of Tiwai (The Commonwealth Aluminium Corporation Pty Ltd) also wanted to build and own Manapouri but the Govt of they day was on a Hydro building binge said it would buidl and operate it on behalf. We are now welshing on this agreement. 

 

Edit: This is why power lines to fully link Manapouri to the National Grid where never needed/required.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manapouri_Power_Station

 

Well, no, Meridian can't sell the power to anyone else because there is no infrastructure to carry the power to anywhere but Tiwai.

So it would be a monopoly one way or the other... either the Govt own the lines, or Rio Tinto owns them. Likewise the dam itself.  It's much more sensible for the Govt to own them, because then they can connect them to other users if they want.

The agreement for the supply of power was never immutable. That's why it has reviews periodically, which is what's happening at the moment. At the time of a review, Rio Tinto tries to negotiate the price down by whatever means it has at its disposal, and the Govt/Meridian try to negotiate the price up. The links to the National Grid weren't built because Comalco was paying a good enough price, and there wasn't the demand. Now the price is not so good, and there is increased demand, so it's sensible to revisit the connection question.