The company says it is in the lowest quarter in terms of price of all electricity distribution businesses across the country.
PowerNet recently announced line charge changes for Electricity Invercargill Ltd, The Power Company Ltd, OtagoNet and the Lakeland Network.
Electricity Invercargill Limited (EIL), like other electricity distribution businesses, are price regulated over five-year periods, with the current period from 2020-25.
"The latest price changes are the last year of a five-year period," PowerNet chief executive Jason Franklin said.
The Commerce Commission determines the allowable revenue and returns on assets under the Commerce Act for electricity distribution businesses (EDBs), including EIL.
Over the past five years, this has resulted in an average increase in distribution prices of 1.2% annually.
"The complexity of the regulatory regime can result in prices changing annually, both up and down; however, the regulatory regime focuses on five-yearly blocks," Mr Franklin said.
For the Electricity Invercargill Limited (EIL) network, over the five years, prices EIL charges to retailers have decreased by 5.5%, or $1.16 million. Therefore, these charges, including a mix of transmission and distribution, are 5.5% lower than five years ago.
EIL applies these regulatory changes to its prices, whether they increase or decrease.
The EIL network is one of the most reliable in the country, and its line charges are in the lowest quartile of all EDBs. The network has invested over $117million in the electricity assets in Invercargill, he said.
Those assets are managed in a way that ensures they can be relied on to deliver electricity in a safe, efficient, and reliable manner. Ongoing asset replacements occur, as well as the assets being proactively maintained.
In contrast, Network Waitaki recently released its pricing for the coming year with an overall 11% price rise. Aurora Energy, which had lines throughout the Otago region, will have an average increase of 7.4% from the start of next month.
Line charges make up about a quarter of a power bill.
PowerNet is also encouraging customers to consider switching power loads to off-peak. That follows the introduction of time of use (TOU) pricing for the variable price line charges in April, 2022.
Peak times are 7am to 11am and 5pm to 9pm, with shoulder times from 11am to 5pm and 9pm to 11pm, with the night period from 11pm to 7am.
EIL network assets are built to meet the network's peak demand. Peak demand is anticipated to grow with decarbonisation and the uptake of electric vehicles, so the company said it needed to encourage customers to shift their load away from these times.
The longer it could defer or avoid the need to invest in new assets to meet the peak demand, the lower it could keep annual line charges, it said.
A price difference between the peak, shoulder and night periods incentivises customers to shift load.
Mr Franklin said it was easy to do through manual operation or using time clocks and built-in timers.
The price difference between the peak and night periods will be 5.64 cents per kWh, and the price differential between the peak and shoulder periods will be 1.3 cents per kWh.
All network line charges are passed on to electricity retailers, which repackage these into their price tariffs and retail offerings.
Customers require a smart meter and a retailer passing through this pricing structure to take advantage of the TOU pricing.
