ENA Warren Moyes says electricity lines businesses have been subjected to successive waves of regulation since being forced them to sell their generation and energy trading assets in 1998.

“News that the latest consumer price index showed a 10.4 percent leap in delivered electricity prices is only part of the story. This month we’ve seen a further rise in charges to customers from the largest generator-retailer, plus strong indications that more increases are on the agenda.

“The lines industry is now facing regulations to help the highly profitable major generators to extend their dominance into local generation ventures such as wind farms, while the lines industry remains effectively barred from competing with them by an ongoing ban on buying back-up power contracts.

“In the longer term the news is not at all positive, with consumers seeing little evidence that higher generation earnings are contributing to security. We’ve already seen soaring electricity prices resulting from dry winter weather in 2001 and 2003, and also the recent supply problems in the upper South Island.

“The major generators are doing extremely well from the Government’s regulatory fixation on the lines industry, and clearly expect to continue to do so. Consumers are not so fortunate.”

Earlier this month Powerco boss Steven Boulton said the vast majority of electricity price increases over the last five years had been driven by retailers. Lines companies were not responsible, but retailers often blamed them for their own increases, or “camouflaged their increases in the structure of the customer’s bill".