Expanding into the New Zealand electricity retail market? The broad contours of the New Zealand system
Last week, New Zealand’s electricity regulator announced that “consumer choice has reached record levels, with 47 different retail brands now supplying New Zealand households”.[1] With so many new entrants into the New Zealand retail market (12 in the last year), it is worth taking a look the general features of the New Zealand electricity system and retail market and how they contrast with Australia’s. [caption id="attachment_4038" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Photo by Jasper van der Meij on Unsplash[/caption] By Dr Drew Donnelly, Compliance Quarter. The New Zealand grid and wholesale market As in Australia, the retail market has been traditionally dominated by several ‘gentailers’, vertically integrated organisations with separate generation and retail arms. Five gentailers, Contact Energy, Genesis Energy, Mercury Energy, Meridian Energy and TrustPower together produce about 95% of New Zealand's…