Unlisted energy retailers appear to be benefiting from consumers looking for the best-value electricity prices as times remain tough for households.
Contact Energy yesterday reported it had 457,500 customers at April 30, down 19,000, or 4%, from April 30 last year. Nearly 3000 customers were lost in the month of April.
Contact gained 2000 lpg customers, a figure which included franchises.
On Friday, TrustPower reported it had lost 4000 customers in the year to March - from 225,000 to 221,000.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said unlisted retailers such as Powershop, Mercury Energy and Meridian Energy were feeling the benefits as consumers tried to get value for money.
Powershop allowed customers to shop online for the best electricity deal on the day. It was backed by Meridian.
The changing numbers for Contact and TrustPower were not surprising given the industry churn, he said.
"Consumers are considering their options and want the best way to make their scarce dollars go further. Power charges are one of the largest items of household spending."
The Government might be considering further details in Thursday's Budget concerning the partial privatisation of state-owned energy assets.
Mr Timms said the churn of customers would heighten interest in any announcement, given the recent escalation of power prices.
The Government also had more reason than ever to try to raise cash from the partial privatisation.
"If they ever needed the extra money, they definitely need it now given the country's high level of debt,"
In its report, Contact said at April 30 South Island hydro storage was 100% of mean levels and North Island storage 157% of mean levels.
Contact noted the average wholesale price for April was $56 per megawatt-hour (MWh). It said prices on March 26 were interim and subject to the Electricity Authority's final decision on the "undesirable trading situation" under part 5 of the electricity industry participation code. Once a final decision had been made, data for March would be updated.
Mighty River Power said the Electricity Authority needed to set out clear expectations of wholesale electricity market participants and penalise bad behaviour.
In an draft decision, the authority said an undesirable trading situation occurred on March 26, when spot power prices soared to $20,000 per MWh north of Huntly, and said prices for the period should be reduced to between $1500 and $3000 per MWh.
Mighty River Power chief executive Doug Heffernan said his company had provided a detailed response to the authority's draft decision. The final ruling needed to go further and it would be precedent-setting.
Clarity was needed to ensure all participants were acting in the best interests of the market, as were penalties if participants did not behave appropriately.
"We believe there are additional factors that need to be considered by the authority when it resets prices in any undesirable trading situation - such as the likely customer response to reduce demand when provided with better and earlier information of very high prices.
"We also believe that where a undesirable trading situation is found by the authority and a party has been found to squeeze prices then the authority should remove the squeeze by adjusting that party's offers to pre-squeeze levels, otherwise it is in effect condoning the squeeze," Dr Heffernan said.
