Meridian blamed for $80m of power cost over-charging

Tue, 30 Jun 2020

Electricity consumers may have been over-charged by as much as $80 million in December after generators charged more for power than usual when hydro-lakes were full and spilling, the Electricity Authority says. Meridian Energy, the country’s biggest generator, chose to reduce its generation and spill water in order to keep power flows moving on the high-voltage link to the North Island – the HVDC – thus holding up prices in the South Island. While all South Island generators benefited from the higher prices – and both Genesis Energy and C...

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