Electricity Price Review 2018-2019

The government acceptance is being discussed in the topic Genesis Energy, long gap in power shouts and has drawn that topic away from the Genesis actual power shout to speculation that the government is forcing it to end. I think that this view is misinformed about the current outcomes from the review.

@MikeB4: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=141&topicid=259765&page_no=2#2341517

I feel the politics is relevant here. The government has stated they wish power suppliers to cease discounts and these power shouts are a discount. It has been some time since we received one from Genesis and I suspect political pressure is present.

I can't find that the government has "stated that they wish power suppliers to cease discounts" completely. But they have spoken about two specific practices which disadvantage poorer users. These are the prompt payment discounts and saves & win backs when customers start to transfer to another retail supplier:

Prohibit prompt payment discounts but allow reasonable late payment fees

The Government welcomes this recommendation, however rather than immediately regulate retailers, the Minister of Energy and Resources will write to the industry setting out the findings of the Review and the expectation that they make discounts available to all consumers and reflect the true costs of managing late payments from their customers. When Meridian did this, it handed $5 million back to consumers. Should the companies not follow suit, we will regulate.

...

Prohibit saves and win-backs

There is evidence to suggest the practice of “saves and win backs” is facilitating a “two tier” market that favours some consumers, whilst disadvantaging others. The Government believes saves and win backs should be prohibited for a set period of time so that its impact on consumers can be properly evaluated.
The Government will convey to the Electricity Authority its concerns about the adverse impact of this practice on retail competition and consumers, and that the Authority impose a ban or moratorium on win backs followed by a full evaluation of the impacts on consumers.

The Electricity Price Review: Government Response to Final Report was released 3 October and Interest.co.nz has a summary PDF of 20 recommendations being progressed (NB this link currently has the extension ".docx" which needs to be removed from the link otherwise you will have to choose to open it with your pdf viewer/editor).

Hammerer

Hammerer