Recent trends in revenue and demand
Unison’s revenue from distribution line charges has increased over recent years. Revenue from line charges, which made up most of Unison’s revenue, increased by around 13% from 2008 to 2011, over and above inflation. Distribution line charge revenue from residential and commercial customers increased by 9%. Most of Unison’s revenue is from residential and smaller commercial customers.
The increase in revenue is mostly driven by prices increases, but some of it was due to an increase in demand.
The average price change varied across customer groups:
- The average price for smaller customer connections increased 9%. The average price per unit of electricity delivered to smaller customers increased 3%.
- The average price for larger customer connections decreased 3%. The average price paid per unit of electricity delivered to larger customers increased 74%, most of which occurred in 2011.
Overall demand growth on Unison’s network was mixed. The number of smaller customer connections grew by less than 1% while electricity consumption increased 6%. The number of large customer connections grew 59% while electricity consumption dropped by 11%, but from a small initial level.
Unison is a consumer owned trust that is subject to information disclosure and price quality regulation. It may choose to re-distribute part of its revenue to its consumer-owners or to community projects
Recent trends in expenditure
Unison’s total operating expenditure grew by 9% per year over and above inflation. This meant that Unison’s unit operating expenditure went from being similar to the industry average, to exceeding it by 2011. The majority of operating expenditure went towards general management, administration and overheads.
Capital expenditure has consistently been between $35m and $40m throughout the period.
Forecast network operating expenditure is flat but differed in each forecast round. This may reflect changes in actual business need or uncertainty.
Forecast capital expenditure fluctuates significantly over the next five years peaking between 2013 and 2015. This may indicate that Unison has planned for one or more major projects in this period.
Recent trends in service reliability
Both the average duration of interruptions and the frequency of interruptions were lower than the industry average and Unison’s regulatory limits in every year.
Full analysis
The full analysis of Unison'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.
