KEY POINTS:
The outgoing head of New Zealand's biggest power generator has taken a swipe at the electricity industry for failing consumers.
Meridian chief executive Keith Turner said consumers could ask how they've benefited from 10 years of price rises totalling 50 per cent, upheaval and supply cuts and close calls.
"The consumer has a great deal of reason to ask what's going on here," he told the National Power conference in Auckland yesterday.
Turner, who has more than 30 years' experience in the sector, said innovation had been slower than in other industries, such as telecoms.
Smart metering was being introduced but consumers had lived for decades with a bill that came a month late, was "always bigger than they expected" and householders had no idea where they used their power.
Turner, who leaves Meridian at the end of March, said without substantial investment in the national grid to last the next 50 years, the power sector would remain constrained.
The Government's energy strategy, aimed at a 90 per cent renewable target by 2025, was achievable but added impetus to the grid upgrade because wind generation sites were isolated.
He said there needed to be better co-operation between generators, a point picked up by Genesis Energy CEO Murray Jackson, who said there was a need for more centralised planning.
"We may want to take a more moderate approach to competition."
He said the Government's target of 90 per cent renewable energy by 2025 was adventurous, and that he had seen no research into what back-up was needed to underpin the target.
