Alpine Energy announces new pricing

ALPINE ENERGY CONFIRMS NEW PRICING

Community-owned Alpine Energy has published its new delivery charges for 2017.

With distribution charges typically accounting for around26% of electricity bills in South Canterbury, the new pricing will translate to an average increase of 2.3% for local businesses and residences.

The impact on individual customers will vary dependent on factors such as annual consumption and whether the retailer passes on the network price changes to its customers.

Alpine Energy Chief Executive Andrew Tombs said the increases are in accordance with the Commerce Commission’s price setting and will gear Alpine Energy for growth in electricity demand in South Canterbury, “which was expected to grow by between 30-40% over the next decade.

“Alpine Energy is committed to significant investment in network upgrades to ensure the continued high standards of reliability. We are also anticipating growth in network capacity demands driven by rural and industrial demand and new technologies, so there is a requirement for new infrastructure in that space.”

Tombs said the revised pricing will generate an additional $5.2m in revenues for infrastructural development. “Our focus must remain to ensure we have a network that can cater for current demand and provide future certainty of supply for the region.”

The increases were under the Commerce Commission’s default price-quality path for lines companies, which were capped at CPI plus 11%.

“Alpine Energy’s average unit price remains below the industry average and is comparatively lower than most electricity distribution businesses in New Zealand. At the same time we know that these kind of increases can have an impact on households and businesses so we need to balance that against the assurance of a safe, robust and resilient network while distributing funds back to our community shareholders.”

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