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What's Behind The Incoming Power Price Rises?
Rises in the country's national grid charges are behind the most recent warning of power price increases, an expert says.
It comes as Mercury became the most recent company to notify expected price increases.
Consumer NZ's head of Powerswitch Paul Fuge said the "lines" part of the bill is behind the increase, which means the price of power lines in the street were expected to rise.
"That's because we are entering the new regulatory period. The Commerce Commission controls the prices for those organisations and those prices will be increasing from 1 April," Fuge told Morning Report.
"There's no avoiding price increases. We generally seeing price increases across the board."
On Tuesday, Mercury warned residential customers they should expect a 9.7 percent increase in power prices from April.
It comes after the company revealed $418 million in half-year underlying profit, down four percent from a year ago, which Mercury put down to lower renewable generation and higher costs. It also slumped to a bottom line loss due to changes in the value of unhedged contracts.
Fuge said New Zealand has lurched from one energy crisis to another.
"That's primarily because we haven't invested enough in electricity generation. What that means is when we don't get enough rain prices can spike. That results in very high prices in the wholesale market and eventually those trickles through to the retail market," Fuge said.
Fuge urged consumers to use the free and independent service Powerswitch which compares thousands of residential electricity and gas plans from 16 providers in New Zealand.
He said 90 percent of people that use the service find they are paying more for power than they need.
Consumers can also look at their power habits and try to change their behaviours to use more power in off peak times, Fuge added.
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