Recent trends in revenue and demand
Centralines’ revenue from distribution line charges has increased significantly over recent years. Revenue from line charges, which made up most of Centralines revenue, increased by around 30% from 2008 to 2011, over and above inflation. Distribution line charge revenue from residential and smaller commercial customers increased by 40%, and from medium-sized customers by 32%. Most of Centralines’ revenue is from residential and smaller commercial customers.
The increase in revenue was mostly due to prices rising, but some of it was due to demand increasing.
The average price increase varied across customer groups:
- The average price per small customer connection increased by around a third. The average price per unit of electricity delivered to a small customer increased by around 25%.
- The average price per medium sized customer connection increased by around 20%. The average price per unit of electricity delivered to a medium sized customer increased by around 24%.
- The average price per connection for the largest five customers decreased around 10%. The average price per unit of electricity delivered to the largest five customers increased around 8%.
Demand for distribution services grew modestly between 2008 and 2011.
Centralines is a consumer owned trust and only subject to information disclosure regulation. Centralines may choose to re-distribute part of its revenue to its consumer-owners or to community projects.
Recent trends in expenditure
Centralines’ total operating expenditure increased by 12% per year over and above inflation. Operating expenditure per connection, per unit of electricity delivered and per length of network increased by around 5% per year.
Investment in the network increased faster than the size of Centralines’ business from 2008 to 2011.
Forecast expenditure tends to tail off after the first year of forecast. This may reflect actual business need, uncertainty, a short term focus, or the opportunity to update forecasts annually in its Asset Management Plan.
Recent trends in service reliability
The average duration of outages on Centralines’ network has typically been below the industry average, but the average number of interruptions has been higher than the industry average. The average frequency of interruptions was greater than the regulatory limit in 2011.
Full analysis
The full analysis of Centralines' performance from 2008 to 2011 can be downloaded below.
All dollar figures in our analysis are adjusted for inflation and expressed in 2011 dollars.
