By Mark Reynolds
Six months of pandemonium over the ownership of retail electricity businesses is drawing to a close, with Tauranga-based TrustPower yesterday confirming it has bought the customer base of Central Electric in Otago.
The sale means just one electricity company - Marlborough Electric in Blenheim - has yet to decide
what to do with its retail assets following changes to electricity laws last year. The changes forced companies to split ownership of their monopoly power lines business from retail trading and generation operations.
"We are pleased to have confirmed the sale to a good company like TrustPower but we are sad that it has been necessary because of changes forced on us by the Government's Electricity Industry Reform Act," said Central Electric chairman Max Naylor.
TrustPower will pay $10.4 million for the business, which includes a list of about 19,000 customers along with metering and administrative assets. The purchase means TrustPower now has nearly 200,000 customers, including people in the Bay of Plenty, the West Coast of the South Island and rural Otago.
TrustPower is the only New Zealand-owned non-Government-controlled retailer to emerge from last year's reforms. That has given it an advantage in taking over operations previously owned by community trusts.
TrustPower is expected to also buy Marlborough Electric's base of 19,000 customers. A decision on the sale of that business will be made by the Marlborough Electric Power Trust next week.
