Vector’s boss wants systemic change in the energy system

CEO of Vector Limited Simon Mackenzie
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook

The head of the country’s largest energy company says the energy reforms of the 1990s are no longer fit for purpose and is calling for systemic changes.

Simon McKenzie is CEO of Vector, which covers the entire Auckland region with over 600,000 connections.

He argues that the demands placed on the system are now more complex than ever before and that the very idea that market forces can provide solutions is unrealistic.

The so-called Bradford reforms carried out 26 years ago led to the splitting of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand into the generator sales companies we know today as Meridian Energy, Genesis Energy and Mercury. Contact Energy had previously been spun off.

The Act also separated power companies from electricity supply companies (retailers), but power generating entities were still allowed to operate as retailers.

Simon McKenze believes that dividing and slicing is part of the problem today and that a whole-system approach is needed to meet the challenges of the next decades.