Meridian and Contact cleared of trading standards breach

Meridian Energy won’t face any punitive sanction forwastingwater it could have used to generate electricity in 2019 after the Electricity Authority cleared both it and Contact of breaching trading standards rules. Ameridian spokeswoman said it supported the authority’s decision to discontinue its trading standards investigation. ‘‘We believe that is the correct decision in the light of the information we presented to the authority during its investigation of thismatter,’’ she said. Seven independent electricity retailers brought a complaint in December, 2019, alleging that both Meridian and Contact Energy had unnecessarily spilledwater they could have used for generation during a period of high hydro inflows that month, resulting in spot market prices being higher than they should have been. The authority agreed last December that an ‘‘undesirable trading situation’’ had occurred over a period of about three weeks and in March suggested resetting spot market prices over the period by a nominal sum of almost $80 million.