TrustPower Rated Top Electricity Company for 2009
In the latest issue of NZ Energy & Environment Business Week, Editor Pattrick Smellie assesses how the big players in the NZ electricity sector battled through a turbulent 2009.There are bouquets for TrustPower which gets 9 out of 10 for “quietly making money while thumbing its nose at the rest of the sector,” while Meridian’s 2009 has been called “a shocker.”
Pattrick Smellie says Meridian’s “return on assets remains woeful, an internal shake-up to reduce head office costs dragged on for months and the abandonment of a key upgrade of back-office customer service systems are serving to make Meridian an unhappy ship.” It rates a lowly 5/10 – most likely to have another torrid year.
Contact Energy also gets 5 out of 10. “On top of self-inflicted wounds, Contact's previously successful earnings model is effectively broken until the Cook Strait cable returns to full operability in 2012. The company’s reputation as a sure footed contributor to the public policy debate has waned.” It has “a couple of tricky years ahead.”
NZ Energy & Environment Business Week rates Transpower on 6 out of 10 “…it has succeeded in nobbling he Electricity Commission whose days appear numbered in the forthcoming Brownlee reforms.”
It “should be feeling pretty chipper.”
Genesis gets 8 for a good year. “Most improved; most likely to look very different by the end of 2009.
MightyRiverPower also gets rated as an 8 out 10 performance. “It pushed the Mercury brand into Wellington and the South Island, picking up 20,000 new customers in an aggressive marketing push that has industry watchers shaking their heads at the prices being paid to win and retain high value customers at present. It
is seen by NZ Energy & Environment Business Week as most capable of being privatised.
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