By Anan Zaki of RNZ
Christchurch Metropolis Council says it has been refunded $250,000 after being overcharged for its streetlighting by Contact Power.
It comes after the Electrical energy Authority lodged a proper criticism with an unbiased rulings panel towards the ability firm.
The authority alleges that between early March 2022 and the top of September 2025, Contact failed to keep up an up-to-date distributed unmetered load (DUML) database for the council.
It additionally did not take all practicable steps to make sure submission info was full and correct.
Contact has accepted it breached the code, and doubtlessly faces a penalty of as much as $200,000.
The authority stated Contact was liable for the council’s streetlight database within the interval.
It additional famous Contact failed to handle DUML accuracy points recognized throughout a number of audits, ensuing within the overcharge.
“The investigator assessed the market impression as excessive, with an over-submission of 4.94 gigawatt hours of electrical energy between March 2022 to September 2025,” the authority stated.
Christchurch Metropolis Council head of services and property Bruce Rendall stated the discrepancy was recognized by an unbiased auditor, after which Contact confirmed the overcharge.
“The matter is restricted to streetlighting expenses,” Rendall stated. “Council is just not a celebration to the Electrical energy Authority’s present criticism course of.”
The council manages a streetlighting community of roughly 44,000 lights.
The largely LED community was operated by means of a central administration system with sensible controllers on particular person lights.
Contact accepts it breached power code
Contact Power stated it was taking steps to make sure the over charging of Christchurch Metropolis Council doesn’t occur once more.
It stated it had applied processes to make sure that road mild dimming was precisely captured and it accepted it breached the Code.
Christchurch Metropolis Council has been reimbursed $250,000.
Contact stated the difficulty associated to a historic matter the place Christchurch Metropolis Council applied streetlight dimming.
It stated Contact have been collaborating with Christchurch Metropolis Council for a prolonged time period to implement an answer to mirror the impression of road mild dimming to the market and Christchurch Metropolis Council power payments.
