Power firm in default, Electricity Authority says
The Electricity Authority is advising customers of Aucklandbased electricity retailer ID Power to switch to a different power firm before next Wednesday, saying it has defaulted on its wholesale market payments.
The authority said if customers did not switch away from the firm by then, it would allocate them a new supplier and their power would not be switched off.
The authority’s advisory said ID Power had failed to keep up with payments ‘‘as a result of business decisions they will have made over a period of time’’.
‘‘Like all companies in the electricity industry, they were aware of the risks and the need to manage their exposure to them,’’ it said.
ID Power gave no indication on its website yesterday that it was not business as usual.
It states on its website that it serves customers in King Country, Auckland, Hamilton and Northland, and is expanding.
But an Electricity Authority spokeswoman said it had fewer than 100 customers, with that number now dwindling as customers switched away.
The authority had a welldefined process to follow if an energy trader did not fulfil financial obligations to its clearing manager, she said.
The process could be stopped if ID Power rectified the default before Friday week, she said.
Electricity industry sources said a few small independent retailers were currently seeking to sell their customer bases to others and exit the market due to high wholesale prices.
One said that although it was commonly reported there were 30 players in the retail market, competition was not as healthy as that would suggest because many were minnows.
Trustpower announced its intention to sell its electricity retail business in January this year.
It advised in April that it had received some non-binding indicative offers.
There was one positive development for independent retailers yesterday when new power entrant Lodestone Energy announced plans to build five large solar energy firms in the upper North Island by the summer of 2023.
Major ‘‘gentailers’’ that are net suppliers of electricity can supply their retail customers using their own generation.
Meridian wholesale manager Chris Ewers indicated on Monday that it currently saw no need to revise its retail pricing this year.