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

The National Government's asset sale programme is complete but the debate about the process just won't go away.

The only way I have got through is by being disciplined.

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

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

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.

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.

Indigestion triggered by the size of the Govt's power company floats and investors wanting to take profits are being blamed for a fall in NZ's benchmark index.

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.

Two events this week clearly illustrate that serious questions need to be asked about the Crown's transparency and decision-making processes.

The head of New Zealand's investment regulator has hit out at the Government's energy company sharemarket floats and says they have failed to lead the way in making it easier for retail investors to access information.

The FMA yesterday called on issuers of investment statements and prospectuses to "lift their game" after its report on the industry following its guidance note of June last year.

Meridian shares will be issued at a listing price of $1.50, the bottom of the indicative range, and with a much smaller investor pool than the government had hoped for.

Sources said the Meridian general offer could attract up to $280 million which, when taken with the broker allocation of $565m, could see up to $850m out of the $1.25 billion offer in retail ownership.

Share buybacks - such as the one outlined this week by Mighty River Power - are a useful tool for companies to manage their balance sheets, but they don't always translate into higher share prices, say analysts.

Mighty River Power's $50 million share buyback is more about the company's strong balance sheet than politics, says chair Joan Withers.

A glitch means some Mighty River Power shareholders have yet to receive notification of how many shares they bought during the company's float.

Five months after the first share float of Mighty River Power a referendum on asset sales is to go ahead - news accidentally tweeted by the Greens co-leader.