Can't read this (yet, it's paywalled but free in a few days), the lede says it all. Appalling we're paying so much, this is due mostly to neoliberal driven privatisation. This government will ignore this failure for ordinary New Zealanders and seek to push for further privatisation.
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Exclusive new research shows NZ households spent $800m more on energy in 2024 than in 2022, as the Govt considers a total overhaul of the power market.
newsroom.co.nz
Out from behind the paywall now, and bugger, not a mention of privatisation (unless energy security is a neo lib code for privatisation) ....
Minister foreshadows βfundamentalβ power market reform
Exclusive new research shows Kiwi households spent $800m more on energy in 2024 than in 2022, as the Government considers a total overhaul of the power market
The Government is gearing up for major reforms to the electricity market, as new research shows household energy bills rose $800 million over two years.
Energy Minister Simon Watts says the coalition parties are still working through their response to a review of the market but plan to announce next steps by the end of the month. The review, by Australian firm Frontier Economics, will be released alongside the Governmentβs response.
Although final steps had not yet been decided, Watts says the changes will be more than tweaks. βIn the context of reform of the energy market, I think this is going to be fundamental reform. Probably the last time there was a reform of significant scale was in the early 90s. Weβre pretty clear in the context that the changes that weβre looking to make will have a fundamental impact on the market, in a positive way around energy security and affordability.β
Thatβs a significant change from Wattsβ comments to the
Sunday Star Times a month ago, in which he
talked up the value of a βsurgicalβ intervention.
The news comes as research shows household energy costs were $800 million higher in 2024 than they were two years earlier.
A report from the Green Building Council looked at the
potential savings for households and the economy of switching from gas-powered space and water heating to heat pumps. The report found households could save $1.5 billion a year from electrifying these appliances, based on current energy prices.
Further analysis conducted by the council and provided exclusively to Newsroom also showed how energy prices have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2021, households spent a total of $4.4 billion on electricity and gas, according to data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The next year saw only a slight rise, to $4.5b.
Prices then jumped significantly in 2023 to $4.8 billion, before an enormous leap to $5.2 billion in the 2024 calendar year. Residential electricity and gas spends in the March 2025 quarter continued the trend, landing $60 million higher than the previous year and $257 million above March 2021.
βFamilies have seen their household energy bill rise by over $400 a year on average since 2023, compounding the cost-of-living crisis,β Andrew Eagles, the Green Building Councilβs chief executive, said.
βThe Government could make a real dent in the cost of living by assisting families with the cost of installing heat pumps and hot water heat pumps. That would also free up much-needed gas and electricity for manufacturers.β
Dr Keith Turner, a long-time energy market expert who served as the first chief executive of Meridian, played a role in the sector reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, and most recently finished up after three years as the chair of Transpower, said fundamental reform of the market was needed.
βIt is pretty clear to me that you wonβt get a fundamental change unless you do some fundamental reform. If Simon Watts is saying this reform thatβs coming is going to be fundamental, that is whatβs necessary to really address the long-term competitive advantage of New Zealand,β he told Newsroom.
βWhen I came into this industry in the 60s and 70s, electricity prices were a significant competitive advantage to New Zealand. We didnβt suffer quite as badly as many other countries did when the oil shocks occurred because we had indigenous energy. We probably have lost that competitive advantage. If this Government really wanted to boost economic productivity, the one thing that will really do it is significantly lowering wholesale prices.β
Turner offered up four ideas for reform, graduating from tinkering to wholesale structural change. They included a regulated market making of long-term, shaped hedges, which he said would only be a short-term fix; the adoption of Australian-style consumer-funded long-term energy services agreements; reversing some of the changes of the 1990s to align with the sector reform blueprint produced the decade prior; and the creation of a single-buyer wholesale market to bring prices down through central planning.
βElectricity wholesale prices are well above where they should be. I think weβre not seeing enough investment in new generation, particularly from independent investors who have been doing a lot of exploration, a lot of development, but havenβt been able to get their projects up,β Turner said.
βI think thereβs pretty strong evidence looking at the value of companies that thereβs a fair amount of transfer of wealth going on from the consumer to the gentailers.β
Most of the options proposed by industry analysts for anything approaching βfundamentalβ reform would disadvantage the incumbents β the gentailers. Watts told reporters he hadnβt consulted with them on the proposals and was instead focused on getting agreement from coalition partners.
βThereβs going to always be differing views on the outcomes, but I think at the end of the day, my job is to make sure that weβve got energy affordability and energy security for New Zealanders and New Zealandersβ views are the views that count for me.β
Exclusive new research shows NZ households spent $800m more on energy in 2024 than in 2022, as the Govt considers a total overhaul of the power market.
newsroom.co.nz
: The U.S. economy's real GDP grew by 0.8% in the June 2025 quarter. This is the quarter-on-quarter equivalent of the widely reported 3.3% annualized rate. The primary drivers were a sharp decrease in imports and an increase in consumer spending.
: The UK's GDP saw a rise of 0.3% in the June 2025 quarter, driven mainly by the services and construction sectors.
: Australia's economy experienced a positive change, growing by 0.6%. This growth was primarily fueled by robust household spending.
: New Zealand's GDP contracted, falling by 0.9% for the quarter. This was a broad-based decline with negative contributions from multiple sectors, including manufacturing and construction.
www.odt.co.nz
www.taxpayers.org.nz
