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.

The Govt has revised the estimate of how much it expects to receive from its partial asset sales down to between $4.6 to $5b.

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 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".

Meridian Energy's instalment receipts have continued to hold firm, helped by buying interest from Bank of New York Mellon Corp, through its London-based subsidiary, Newton Investment.

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.

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.

Businesses in Avondale are without power and residents are being urged to save electricity while urgent network repairs are carried out this morning.

The Government's decision to move earlier than signalled on the Meridian Energy float shows there is positive interest in the float but pricing will remain key

Treasury advised the Government not to pay the owners of the Tiwai Point smelter to keep the business running, documents released this afternoon show.