TrustPower turns on north

By FIONA ROTHERHAM

Tauranga-based TrustPower said its move into the Northland market had won it more than 7000 customers, angry at steep power price increases introduced by Meridian Energy early this year.

The aggressive electricity generator and retailer undercut Meridian by offering a 3 per cent discount, rising to 4 per cent once it had signed up more than 5000 customers.

As well, TrustPower contributes $5 per customer into a "community bucket" to be spent on local projects, as it has done elsewhere in the country.

Meridian inherited Northpower's retail arm and its 40,000 customers from ECNZ, which bought it for $21.5 million after the previous Government's reforms forced power companies to split their lines and retail businesses. The move was aimed at sparking competition among energy retailers to lower prices.

The ministerial inquiry into the electricity industry heard more complaints from Whangarei consumers than any other part of the country.

The main beef was that domestic consumers, once well-served by Northpower, faced price increases of 13 per cent and billing problems. They had trouble contacting anyone at Meridian to complain.

Meridian spokesman Alan Seay said the price increases were necessary because the company had inherited a loss-making retail operation.

TrustPower had indicated it would have increased prices from day one if it had been successful in its bid for the Northland customer base, Mr Seay said.

Previously, TrustPower was not interested in competing for customers because of the tight profit margin.

The price increases gave it an opening to appeal to angry consumers.

In one year, TrustPower has increased its customer base from 98,000 to 220,000.

It admits to losing a significant number of customers in the Marlborough region - many to its main competitor, Meridian.

Meridian said it was concentrating on ironing out problems with switching customers before embarking on a campaign to woo unhappy consumers back.

TrustPower aims to sign up 10,000 Northland customers, or 25 per cent of the market, by September.

That compares with the national figure of about 5 per cent of customers switching retailers since the electricity reforms.