Bradford Extremely Disappointed At Power Price Rises

"I am extremely disappointed that TransAlta is to push ahead with its plan to increase power prices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, despite the reduction in wholesale electricity prices this month," Enterprise and Commerce Minister Max Bradford said tonight.

Mr Bradford urged consumers to make their feelings known by exercising their ability to choose which company powered their homes.

"The best way to get real competition going and to penalise companies who put up prices is for consumers to vote with their feet and change suppliers .

"Consumers should remember it costs nothing to change.

"Other suppliers have either said they have no plans to put up their charges or will maintain a price lower than TransAlta's so consumers have a choice," Mr Bradford said.

"TransAlta has said publicly and to my officials that the sole cause of its power price increases is line charges and that if they came down TransAlta would reverse its price increases.

"TransAlta has argued that some line businesses have effectively increased their prices by passing costs like meters, meter reading, call centres and customer billing on to the retail businesses. It now has to meet these costs but has not received a reduced line price in compensation.

"This argument has at least some validity," Mr Bradford said.

"I have therefore asked my officials to put forward proposals on how to address this matter in their final recommendations on the detailed price control regime to be introduced by the Government with effect from April 1 this year.

"When line prices come down as a consequence of this price control regime I expect TransAlta to honour its undertaking and reduce its prices," Mr Bradford said.