Southland
Transmission pricing changes are likely to have little effect on Southlanders’ power bills, with some forecast to pay slightly more and some slightly less from 2023, PowerNet chief executive Jason Franklin says.
The Electricity Authority yesterday (Wednesday June 10) announced new guidelines for transmission pricing.
However, the exception was the 2000 customers on New Zealand’s smallest electricity distribution network in the Frankton area in Queenstown – Electricity Southland Ltd, also known as the Lakeland Network. They were projected to receive an overall percentage decrease of $80 a year, he said.
Franklin said there appeared to be a significant misunderstanding in the media yesterday around Electricity Southland – with some media assuming it was a network that covered the whole Southland region.
“Electricity Southland is a small electricity distribution network that supplies parts of Frankton and Wanaka. It makes up less than 10% of the customer base in the Queenstown – Lakes Region,” he said.
PowerNet is the electricity network management company delivering power to Invercargill City, Southland, West Otago, parts of Central Otago and Stewart Island. Electricity networks it manages include The Power Company Ltd, Electricity Invercargill Ltd and Electricity Southland Ltd.
Franklin said The Power Company Ltd supplied 37,000 customers in Southland, whose charges were projected to go up, by slightly less than $10 a year.
Electricity Invercargill Ltd supplied 17,000 customers, and their charges were projected to decrease by slightly more than $20 per annum, he said.
The Electricity Authority also said the new guidelines will not increase charges overall.
For the PowerNet managed networks, the proposed overall distribution pricing change was very modest, Franklin said.
“Overall, the transmission price reduction is 0.5%. Of the current $18.4 million in Transmission Charges, the proposed methodology will result in charges reducing to $18.3 million.”
The guidelines include a cap on charges to protect consumers and directly connected businesses from big price increases.