Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Power prices heating up again

Hawkes Bay Today
14 Oct, 2013 08:51 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Power prices have increased in Hawe's Bay and the Wairarapa.

Power prices have increased in Hawe's Bay and the Wairarapa.

The average Hawke's Bay/Wairarapa power bill jumped more than $108 in the last year - $36 above the national average rise.

Grey Power warns the latest price increases will make life even tougher for local residents struggling on fixed income pensions.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Quarterly Survey of Domestic Power Prices shows in the 12 months to August 15, the average national power bill rose $72 - a 3.3 per cent increase.

However, the average power bill in Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa rose $108.08 in the last year - a 4.8 per cent increase.

Hawke's Bay TrustPower customers with Unison lines company suffered the biggest price increase of $156 - represented a 7.4 per cent increase in retail power costs from August 2012. This included a $104 increase in lines charges.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

At the other end of the spectrum, Contact Energy customers with Scanpower lines company and Contact Energy customers with Centralines lines company both enjoyed a $2 decrease in power prices.

This was despite $82 and $91 increases in respective lines charges.

The study, which relied on Electricity Authority data, was based on an average household using 8000kWh per annum - close to the nationwide average residential consumption.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The general increase in electricity costs comes at a time when many Hawke's Bay residents are struggling to make ends meet.

According to the New Zealand Federation of Budgeting services, 4731 Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay residents sought budgeting advice in the year to June. The average client was was carrying about $22,100 in debt.

Grey Power has negotiated a cheaper power deal for its 64,000 national members by forming Grey Power Electricity, in partnership with Pulse Energy - the parent company to Just Energy.

The deal, launched in September, gives Grey Power members access to low cost power and easy-to-read bills.

Discover more

Families seeking budgeting advice hit new high

17 Oct 06:25 PM

Some paying $650 more on power bill

09 Jan 06:25 PM

Little increase in power price

09 Oct 11:29 PM

Hastings Grey Power secretary Marie Dunningham said pensioners struggling to cope with rising power bills were trying to live in cold houses.

"Looking at the older person's health - we know that cold houses become damp houses.

"We think there is no reason for the prices to be so high. 20,000 people have had their power cut off this year because they can't pay their bill."

Despite having an insulated house, using a fire for heating, washing with cold water and not using the heater during the day, Mrs Dunningham said her own power bill was $204 last month - for just two people.

"We're from a generation that was told by our daddies to 'turn out the bloody light'. So we don't waste electricity."

There was no reason for Hawke's Bay's prices to be so much higher than the national average, she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

However, the new Grey Power electricity deal would help save money, and membership applications in Hawke's Bay had already surged since it was announced.

Electricity Authority data shows 19,245 households had their power disconnected in the first half of this year alone.

'That equates to 106 households having their power cut off every day, or four every hour," Labour leader David Cunliffe said.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Simon Bridges has come under fire , accused of burying bad news about rising power prices for the previous quarter.

In the three months to May the cost of power for the average household rose by 2.2 per cent, adding $50 to the annual bill.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

'Never came home': Runner plans marathon for women murdered on runs

21 Jun 05:00 PM
Hawkes Bay Today

Home scorched as hoarded goods that surrounded it go up in flames

21 Jun 02:38 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

'Geriatric poverty': Outrage over Central Hawke’s Bay water rate hikes

21 Jun 12:56 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

'Never came home': Runner plans marathon for women murdered on runs

'Never came home': Runner plans marathon for women murdered on runs

21 Jun 05:00 PM

Nicole Pendreigh will wear a top with the names of 115 women killed on runs.

Home scorched as hoarded goods that surrounded it go up in flames

Home scorched as hoarded goods that surrounded it go up in flames

21 Jun 02:38 AM
'Geriatric poverty': Outrage over Central Hawke’s Bay water rate hikes

'Geriatric poverty': Outrage over Central Hawke’s Bay water rate hikes

21 Jun 12:56 AM
Premium
Matariki is the ‘door to the new year’: Te Hira Henderson

Matariki is the ‘door to the new year’: Te Hira Henderson

20 Jun 07:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP