A new way of monitoring electricity prices - which calculates what people are actually paying for their power - shows consumers faced a 2.3 per cent hike in the past year.

Tonight will be the third cold night without power for thousands of households as more stormy conditions continue to batter the top of the North Island.

Thousands of people are still without power across the north following a severe storm which battered the country over the past two days.

Q: We have been advised by our power supplier that smart meters are being installed in our area. Can we opt out and keep our original meter?

Power companies are offering some of their best deals door-to-door as competition intensifies for electricity customers.

Keeping chickens and growing your own veges is the first step to being self-sufficient.

India's ambition to skip a generation of electricity technology starting with solar panels on telecommunications towers is being hampered by dust and urban sprawl.

This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent.

A Titirangi resident says a live power line has been left on his driveway since Wednesday's storm, and Vector is responding sluggishly.

A Glen Eden family are fed up at being without power three days after an Auckland storm, despite numerous calls to their power company.

"I'm not responsible for the rain, surely?" An 85-year-old has been hit with a big bill after a fuse blew on the power pole outside his house.

Another legal expert has raised concerns about the ownership of solar panels fixed to homes, backing this month's warning from Auckland District Law Society vice-president Joanna Pidgeon.

Survey shows young people most mindful with energy use, while Aucklanders least prepared to go without.

Mighty River Power's next chief executive, Fraser Whineray, sees flat demand as being the biggest challenge facing the electricity generator and retailer.

Strong demand for shares in Genesis Energy saw the public pool heavily scaled back yesterday, raising the ire of investors who missed out on getting their desired levels of stock but also reflecting the offer's popularity.

Home electricity bills rose by $63 on average in the 12 months to February, with the biggest increases generally occurring in some smaller cities and their large rural hinterlands.

The Treasury would have liked more "Mum and Dad" small investors to have bought shares in electricity generators Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy.

If the price is set too low, money is left on the table and assets can be sold off at a discount, writes Christoph Schumacher and Sasha Molchanov. This is neither desirable nor efficient.

The average power bill for a family of four will rise by 2.4 per cent this year, Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges said yesterday.

Over the past couple of weeks, households have been receiving nasty surprises in the mail.

Households will be socked with power bill increases of as much as 24% next month and power firms and network operators are blaming each other over who is responsible.

Investors wanting more certainty around Labour-Greens policy for overhauling the electricity sector before the election appear to be out of luck.

Mighty River Power remains on track to meet forecast full-year profit for the year but is wary of falling lake levels feeding its central North Island hydro dams.

New Zealanders are switching to cheaper power companies in droves with help from Government-sponsored campaign.