Fines for power bunglers

By RICHARD BRADDELL

WELLINGTON - Electricity retailers and lines companies will face heavy fines under new rules designed to enable customers to switch retailers in a matter of days.

"I guarantee you now that in the next four or five months, the industry's disciplinary process will come to bear on the people not complying with the rules and there will be some big fines handed out," said Philip Bradley, chief executive of wholesale electricity market administrator M-Co.

A total of 81,000, or 5 per cent of consumers, changed electricity supplier in the year to March. With many large consumers among them, they accounted for 18 to 20 per cent of consumption.

But game playing and procedural bungles by retailers and lines firms have been blamed for delays of several months for people wanting to change retailer. Some have not received bills. Some have even had their supply cut.

Mr Bradley said rules agreed by industry governance bodies Maria (Metering and Reconciliation Information Agreement) and the NZ Electricity Market would go to a members' vote in the next week or so and should take effect within 15 days.

The risk of fines of up to $50,000 for a single breach would bring potential rebels into line.

Once the rules were in place, M-Co would look into complaints by consumers who felt they had got a raw deal. An independent market surveillance body would decide whether a fine should be imposed, but experience in the wholesale power market was that fines were effective.

In spite of the market's problems, Mr Bradley said, the 5 per cent of consumers switching in the past year was a good result.