The biggest barrier to new products is the complexity of 29 separate monopolies owning the country's electricity networks, says Contact.

International mining giant Rio Tinto said the outlook for the metal was positive despite a 9 per cent fall in spot prices over 2013.

The Government will loan households up to $15,000 at low interest rates to help them install solar power if the Greens are elected.

Today's generators never paid enough for the assets to entitle them to charge consumers what the authority now says is reasonable, writes Geoff Bertram.

Setting electricity prices based on historical costs could increase costs for consumers rather than reduce them, says the Electricity Authority.

Feel you're paying too much for electricity? Not according to a new report, which says consumers never actually paid the full cost of building NZ's power stations.

Meridian Energy sold more electricity in the first six months of the current financial year than in the previous year, but prices achieved were significantly lower.

A Labour-led government will make good on its promise to regulate the electricity industry and stamp out 'super-profits', deputy leader David Parker says.

Consumer NZ says power prices for Kiwi households should fall after years of relentless increases including a 3% annual rise revealed in the latest official data.

NZ lighting technology has saved the Countdown supermarket chain's owner almost $500,000 a year in energy costs in two of its buildings.

Investors who took up shares in newly listed Mighty River Power and Meridian will take little comfort from PwC's latest report on the electricity sector.

The decade-long surge in big wind farm building in New Zealand is nearing an end with no new projects in the pipeline as the sector booms around the world.

Parts of Waikato will be without power today as urgent repairs are carried out on the Transpower network.

The Government, fresh from the sale of shares in Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy, faces a harder sell when it comes to divesting a 49 per cent stake in the third and final power generator.

Hundreds of thousands of Transpower customers lost power today when backup measures failed to kick in while the company simulated a "catastrophic power failure".

A plan to produce power for 250,000 homes from tidal turbines in Kaipara Harbour, north of Auckland, has been put on hold.

Consumers shelling out as much as $30 for an LED lightbulb are being caught out by a lack of regulation.

A man died in the Far North after he climbed a power pole and touched wires connected to a 11,000 volt transformer following a fight with his girlfriend.

Farmers Jan and Barry Inwood put a dozen beers under their damaged power lines after a fierce storm left them in the dark.

Transpower has appointed chemical company executive Alison Andrew to replace chief executive Patrick Strange.

When Meridian chief executive Mark Binns says the country's biggest power generator has some "grunty" assets, he's not kidding.

Retail investors are being offered Meridian Energy shares at a dividend yield of 6.5 per cent this financial year and 7.2 per cent next year.

Electricity remains out for 1000 homes in Canterbury after last week's storm battered the network.