By JAMES GARDINER
Bills for thousands of Aucklanders will go up by 11 per cent or more from next month.
First Electric, which undercut competitors for most of the past two years, says it cannot afford to keep losing money in Auckland.
The company has about 50,000 customers nationally, including 20,000 in Greater Auckland.
Many of them will be stung by price rises of 11 per cent and increases in supply charges of up to 14 per cent.
Most will not find a better deal by shopping around. Apart from a few one-off offers there are no cheaper options for medium to large users in all-electric homes.
First Electric's increases bring its prices in line with the other publicly owned retailers, Mercury and Meridian, and private sector competitors On Energy, Contact and Empower.
Mercury and First Electric are owned by state generator Mighty River Power, whose retail general manager, John Foote, apologised to customers for the big price rise.
He said some customers in the former Mercury Energy area of Auckland City and the Power New Zealand area of the North Shore and Waitakere had been on tariffs that had not been economical for the companies for two years.
David Russell, of the Consumers' Institute, said the lack of a cheaper option elsewhere raised the question of whether there was true competition or collusion.
"If they're all setting much the same price you do have to question what's going on."
The institute will publish a comparison of prices next month.
The wholesale market, created so generators can compete, gives new prices every half-hour, but consumers get only a monthly bill based on total consumption regardless of when it was used.
Time-of-use meters, which cost several hundred dollars to buy and install, are not in common use yet and do not produce sufficient savings to make them cost effective.
Wellington-based On Energy raised prices this month for its 55,000 largest customers, but the rest of its 500,000 customers had either no change or a decrease, said spokesman Bruce Thompson.
In many cases On Energy had to bring its charges down because it was losing customers to competitors.
In recent weeks, Meridian has been trying to woo customers with the promise of free Sky TV connections or free pay-per-view movies.
But its rates (9.38c a unit and $1.02 a day fixed) are almost identical to those of other companies.
Mercury is offering a $50 bill rebate to Foodtown supermarket cardholders who switch to it, but again there are no price advantages.
Contact Energy, with about 375,000 customers, has not ruled out further price increases.
Spokesman Blair McLaren said its latest price restructuring had left smaller users better off and larger customers "not so well off."
Power companies also say they are struggling to hold down prices as the wholesale price rises and the industry grapples with how to maintain the appearance of competition.
The South Island drought has already pushed up prices in the wholesale electricity market.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from New Zealand
Police announced $100k reward in unsolved disappearance
Police are focusing their investigation on a small group as part of the cold case.