Government-owned electricity generators-wholesalers Genesis Power, Meridian Energy and Might River Power have already indicated interest in the 364MW Taranaki Combined Cycle station at Stratford and NGC's 50% stake in the 118MW Southdown station in south Auckland.

It is known Meridian, which sees the NGC thermal plants offering balance to its existing portfolio of hydro stations, has made an indicative bid, as has Genesis, which is the dominant supplier in Taranaki-Wanganui-Manawatu and sees the TCC plant as providing "embedded" electricity to those customers.

Other power players, such as Contact Energy and Tauranga-headquartered TrustPower, are believed to have also lodged indicative bids also.

It is further understood an unknown French firm and Australian company Origin Energy, which is active in the New Zealand oil and gas industry and is big in the Aussie power station scene, have probably lodged indicative bids this week.

NGC chief executive Phil James has said his company will be seeking maximum value from the TCC, Southdown and small (32 MW) Cobb hydro station near Nelson, and that NGC expects to receive at least the book value of $NZ548 million. Final bids are due in late December.

Meanwhile the government's plans for gas sector reform have drawn the expected mixed, rather muted response from industry heads.

NGC's chief executive Phil James said the government's announcements were generally in line with NGC's own expectations and that NGC would be participating fully in the process.

Powerco chief executive Steve Boulton said that as the big gas users directly negotiated their own prices and contracts, any government regulation of distribution companies would have an unnecessary impact on consumers.

Contact Energy's corporate affairs manager David Hunt said the review was welcome and would build on a number of initiatives that were already under way.

Earlier this week the New Zealand government announced the terms of its review into the gas sector, including a formal inquiry into whether regulatory control should be introduced in gas transmission. Energy Minister Pete Hodgson is calling for self-governance by the gas sector players, backed by the threat of regulation and a Commerce Commission inquiry into monopoly pricing methodologies, which is expected to take between 18-24 months to complete.