Recent trends in revenue and demand
Electra’s revenue from distribution line charges has increased significantly over recent years. Revenue from line charges, which made up most of Electra’s revenue, increased by more than 40% from 2008 to 2011 over and above inflation. Distribution line charge revenue from residential and smaller commercial customers increased by more than 40%, and from other customer groups by at least 35%. Most of Electra’s revenue is from residential and smaller commercial customers.
The increase in revenue is mostly due to prices increasing.
The average price increase varied across customers:
- The average price per small customer connection increased by around 40%. The average price per unit of electricity delivered to small customers increased by around 20%.
- The average price per large-sized customer connections increased by more than 80%. The average price per unit of electricity delivered to large-sized customers increased by around 20%.
Demand on Electra’s network grew modestly from 2008 to 2011.
Electra is a consumer owned trust and only subject to information disclosure regulation. Electra may choose to re-distribute part of its revenue to its consumer-owners or to community projects.
Recent trends in expenditure
Electra’s total operating expenditure increased 3% per year over and above inflation.
Operating expenditure grew faster than the size of Electra’s business. Operating expenditure per connection, per unit of electricity delivered and per length of network increased by around 5% per year.
Investment in the network declined.
Forecast expenditure tends to tail off after the first forecast year. This may reflect actual business need, uncertainty, a short term focus, or the opportunity to update forecasts annually in the Asset Management Plan.
Recent trends in service reliability
The average duration of outages on Electra’s network has typically been below the industry average, but the average number of interruptions has been higher than the industry average.
Full analysis
The full analysis of Electra's performance from 2008 to 2011 can be downloaded below.
All dollar figures in our analysis are adjusted for inflation and expressed in 2011 dollars.
