TrustPower customers down 5,000 over 2010

Tuesday 15th February 2011

Tauranga-based electricity retailer and generator TrustPower had 5000 fewer customers at the end of 2010 than it did a year earlier, amid stiff competition in the industry.

The company today said its 221,000 customers at the end of 2010 were 1000 fewer than three months earlier and down 6000 from December 2009.

TrustPower chairman Bruce Harker said retail competition remained strong and was expected to continue for some time as state-owned generator-retailers rebalanced their North and South Island customer bases.

The company sold 3113 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity in the nine months to the end of December, 2% lower than a year earlier.

Generation of 1763 GWh in this country for the nine months was up 9 percent on a year earlier due to stronger hydro production in both the North and South Islands, but New Zealand wind generation dropped 7% due to lower wind production at the Tararua Wind Farm during the third quarter, Harker said.

Lower than expected wind conditions at the Snowtown wind farm in South Australia continued during the third quarter with production for the nine months down 18% from a year earlier to 232GWh. Production had improved in recent weeks.

TrustPower's main hydro storage catchments were at or above average levels for this time of year following good inflows during the end of the third quarter and during January.

The commissioning of pumping equipment at the company's Highbank hydro generation scheme, in Canterbury, was completed on schedule in December.

The pumping equipment provided additional irrigation capacity to local irrigators and was an important first step in providing greater irrigation capacity to the Canterbury region, Harker said.

Progress continued on schedule and on budget at the 36 megawatt (MW) Mahinerangi wind project in Otago. All wind towers were now on site with the first two sections erected.

The project's 12 3MW wind turbines were expected to be commissioned from February to May.

In December, TrustPower was also granted consents for both the Arnold and Wairau hydro generation schemes.

The proposed Arnold scheme is located inland from Greymouth with an installed capacity of up to 46MW, while the proposed Wairau scheme is located inland from Blenheim with an installed capacity of 72MW.

Those consents were the only two major hydro consents achieved since the introduction of the Resource Management Act, Harker said.

Within its overall development portfolio TrustPower now had 400MW of wind generation and more than 100MW of hydro generation options in the South Island fully consented.

Attention would now focus on the economic viability of those options, but TrustPower noted the negative impact current pricing for allocation of the cost of the Cook Strait cable had on those generation development options.

NZPA

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