Arbitrator to hear power complaint

Hastings resident Jim Diggle has laid a complaint with the Office of the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner, contending that Unison is charging for a service that they do not supply (the ability to turn off the hot water cylinder) and that Unison is charging too much for wiring because gas requires none.

"This complaint is about unfair and dishonest business practice," he said. "It is not related to costs other than that the unfair practices lead to unjustifiable increased costs for thousands of households."

He is furious his electricity bill will increase because he uses gas rather than electricity for hot-water heating.

Mr Diggle was ineligible for the plan he was on because his hot-water heater was not heated by electricity and could not to be switched off by lines company Unison during power usage spikes.

Mr Diggle buys his electricity from Contact Energy, who told him he was being moved from an "All-Day Economy Plan" to a dearer "Anytime" plan because the all-day plan can "only be applied to properties with electric water heating cylinders or other permanently wired equipment that can be turned off by the network company".

Contact Energy senior communications adviser Jeremy Seed said the rule, that only users who have appliances that can be switched off enjoyed a lower tariff, applied to all electricity retailers in the region and "is in common with most other network companies".

The Office of the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner is a free independent dispute resolution service. which only handles tariff complaints if information provided to consumers has been poor.

Mr Diggle said his complaint contended that Unison was charging for a service it did not supply (the ability to turn off the hot water cylinder) and that Unison is charging too much for wiring because gas requires none.

"This complaint is about unfair and dishonest business practice," he said.

"It is not related to costs other than that the unfair practices lead to unjustifiable increased costs for thousands of households.

"So there you are - yet another hit for us oldies on fixed incomes. I have to live with genuine rises but this is simply a charge for the sake of charging."

Mr Gough said Unison was charged a higher rate from national-grid owner Transpower and so sought to minimise power usage at those times, otherwise the country's electricity infrastructure would need further investment.

"The more we can do to reduce the peak for our network the better it is for us and then ultimately consumers." He said Mr Diggle had been enjoying a rate he was not entitled to "for as long as we have had records".

Consumers wanting to find the lowest electricity charges for their level of usage can use www.powerswitch.org.nz.

It is a free service provided by Consumer NZ with support from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.