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Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult says he is serious about pushing the Dunedin City Council to help fund the regeneration of Aurora's lines network.
Mr Boult said he had asked senior staff at the Queenstown Lakes District Council to investigate the issue and an approach to the DCC would follow depending on their findings.
Mr Boult's comments came after Aurora, a DCC-owned company, this week released its draft pricing structure, outlining a three-year, $400million plan to tackle ageing electricity infrastructure and future-proof it, across Dunedin, Central Otago and Queenstown.
To pay for it, Aurora was seeking a customised price path allowing it to hike line charges by up to $21 a month in 2022 and $10 a month in 2023 and 2024.
Mr Boult reacted with "deep concern and disappointment" to the plan on Tuesday, suggesting the DCC should make a capital contribution to Aurora to offset the "highly inflated dividends" it had secured in the past.
Yesterday, he was not just "venting frustration".
"It's a genuine belief that the dividends taken out of Aurora by DCC were excessive."
QLDC staff would take a "deeper look" at the whole issue, including the level of dividends, the proposed price increases "and whether there's another way to address this".
Once that work was completed, "then perhaps we may go to the DCC and ask if they can consider this formally".
The investigation would also shape a QLDC submission to the Commerce Commission on the proposed increases, which the council would strongly oppose.
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said he needed to discuss the "complex" situation with councillors but expected his council would also submit in opposition to the changes.
He could not yet say if further steps - like those outlined by Mr Boult - would also be considered, but it was "safe to say" his councillors and community were "not happy".
Mr Boult said he also needed more information to inform the council's next steps, but past dividends paid by Aurora to the DCC already seemed "pretty high".
The company had a responsibility, before paying dividends, to ensure its infrastructure was sound and fit for the future, "and clearly it wasn't".
"If they'd spent some money on preventative maintenance some years back, it would've cost a whole lot less than it's costing now."
Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins would not be drawn directly on whether Mr Boult had a point, except to express relief that the "historic approach" to asset management was "thankfully a thing of the past".
He would "look forward" to seeing the results of QLDC investigations into dividends, but insisted it was the Commerce Commission - not the DCC - which would "ultimately decide what is fair and reasonable".
In 2016, the ODT reported $150million had been stripped from Aurora's books since 2003, and a further $55.5million from then-related company Delta since 1998, and transferred to the DCC's books, helping offset rates.