Smelter deal brings certainty and higher share prices

Tiwai Point aluminium smelter’s new long-term electricity deal has given the energy sector new certainty and pushed up the share prices of the major generators.The 20-year deal with Meridian Energy, Contact Energy and Mercury NZ for 572 megawatts (MW) has been 18 months in the making, with the length of those negotiations creating anxiety in the sector that the country’s largest electricity consumer might be closing.The current supply arrangement lapses at the end of the year.Closure would have almost certainly led to a drop in whol...