Vector Limited CEO Simon Mackenzie Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
The boss of the country's biggest lines company says the 1990's electricity reforms are no longer fit for purpose, and he's calling for systemic change.
Simon McKenzie is chief executive of Vector, which covers the whole Auckland region - more than 600,000 connections.
He says the demands on the system are now more complex than ever and the idea that market forces alone can deliver solutions is unrealistic.
The so-called Bradford reforms 26 years ago split the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand into the generator-retailers we know today as Meridian Energy, Genesis Energy and Mercury - with Contact Energy having been spun off earlier.
It also separated lines companies from electricity supply businesses - retailers - but generators were still allowed to operate as retailers.
Simon McKenze says that slice and dice is now part of the problem, and that a whole-of-system approach is required for the challenges of the next few decades.
