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Despite a sharp drop in their rate of customer disconnections after Mangere woman Folole Muliaga died, state-owned companies are continuing to cut off customers at a greater rate than private sector firms, Electricity Commission data shows.
The rate of disconnections for non-payment of bills at Mercury Energy - which cut Muliaga's power three hours before she died - fell from just under 2 per cent of its customer base in the March quarter to a little over 1 per cent in the June quarter. Mercury is the retail division of state-owned Mighty River Power.
After Muliaga's death Mercury suspended last-resort disconnections for six weeks while it reviewed its systems. Mighty River Power chief executive Doug Heffernan said the number of customer disconnections for non-payment of bills had fallen in that period.
New Electricity Commission safeguards for dealing with vulnerable customers were introduced in July.
Meridian Energy's disconnection rate fell by just over 0.5 of a percentage point to 1 per cent over the June quarter while Genesis Energy's rate eased slightly to just over 1 per cent.
Among private-sector firms, Contact's rate fell from about 0.7 per cent to about 0.4 per cent and TrustPower went from about 0.4 per cent to about 0.3 per cent.
The commission noted that most retailers had specific geographic areas where they had significantly more customers than rivals.
It said that was important to consider because factors such as the average socioeconomic position of most consumers in a particular area might be indicative of their ability to pay their electricity accounts.
Caygill quits Infratil after taking new job
Former Labour finance minister David Caygill is resigning as a director of utilities investor Infratil, ahead of taking up his new appointment as Electricity Commission chairman.
Thursday's announcement of Caygill's appointment to the Electricity Commission led to queries from National's energy spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, because of Infratil's energy investments, including a 50.5 per cent stake in TrustPower.
"Any observer of the sector will tell you there is a real potential for that role to intersect with Mr Caygill's work at the Electricity Commission," Brownlee said.
Yesterday Infratil chairman David Newman said the company had received Caygill's resignation as of October 8.
"Infratil is very sorry to lose the services of David Caygill. He has been an excellent director bringing a valuable and rare blend of commercial acumen together with public sector knowledge and experience," Newman said.
"It is these qualities that make him a logical choice for his new role. We wish him well for the future."
- NZPA
