Commerce Commission moves to control Transpower prices

The Commerce Commission has moved to regulate prices charged by national grid operator Transpower.

It said yesterday that it intended to declare price controls on state-owned monopoly Transpower's transmission services after its investigation of breaches of the company's price thresholds during the past three years.

The commission will set out the reasons for taking control of prices in a paper due for release on January 27. The commission will take submissions on the paper until February 15, cross- submissions until February 22 and intends making a final decision on March 17.

Transpower spokesman Chris Roberts said the company was disappointed it would have to wait another five weeks before finding out the commission's reasons for its decision.

"In the meantime, there's not a lot we can say because we don't know what their concern is," he said. "We've openly admitted that for the last three periods that we have breached the threshold and we've supplied the commission with our justifications for doing so.

"It's no secret that we are gearing up the company for some level of investment that has not been seen for 40 years. That means we've had to expand the capability within the company so we are increasing staff numbers, we are spending a lot more on regional projects and we, of course, are planning for some large-scale projects in the year ahead."

Transpower was also concerned at the "extremely short" time frame given to respond to the commission's reasons for seeking control.

But the commission said it had decided to address Transpower's historical breaches of thresholds with urgency after the company last month said it intended to increase charges by 19 per cent next year.

The company has said that increase and further increases of up to 13 per cent per annum over the following four years are required to fund a much-needed $1.5 billion upgrade of the national grid.