Historical pricing error
Thursday 6 November 2025
Alpine Energy has met its undertakings to the Commerce Commission to repay current and former customers who were affected by Alpine Energy’s historical pricing error. In total:
- 33,873 current customers received a credit from Alpine Energy via their retailer
- 357 former customers have received a payment from Alpine Energy.
We will continue to progress our remaining undertakings which are to complete the community investment programme, business improvements to reduce compliance risk, and, reporting to the Commerce Commission.
Wednesday 07 May 2025
Advertising appeared in national newspapers informing former customers on our network of the error, and the criteria to apply for a former customer credit.
Excerpt from annual pricing advertisement published 19 February 2025
Alpine Energy unintentionally overcharged for lines services due to a complex accounting error discovered in 2023. This error has been corrected and now we’re actively working with the Commerce Commission on an agreed solution, which we will communicate with you separately.
We want to assure you that the 1 April 2025 price increase is unrelated to the historical error. It reflects our updated network plans and increased costs. Our prices have been independently audited to ensure they correctly align with regulations.
Saturday 1 June 2024
Your lines charges have been updated, effective 1 June.
We have updated our delivery prices (or lines charges), and our new prices will become effective on 1 June 2024. These will apply
until the end of March 2025 and are lower than those which we earlier notified to customers. The reduction in our pricing is part of
an Alpine-initiated process to correct an error in our historical line’s prices.
Tuesday 16 April 2024
Alpine Energy working urgently to rectify historical error
Alpine Energy has discovered historical errors in its Information Disclosure statements and immediately begun a process to remedy the situation.
This administrative error resulted in the setting of revenue targets higher than they should have been in 2015-23, leading to non-deliberate over-charging of the lines component of electricity bills.
Alpine Energy Chair Melissa Clark-Reynolds said the regrettable error discovered in the 2023 audit would be fixed in a transparent, timely and practical way.
“The Board acknowledges the mistake and accepts responsibility for correcting it. We will work with the Commerce Commission to agree the best way to do this,” she said.
“The complexity of the financial models used to regulate the sector make it a challenging task to precisely establish the overcharged amount. This will need to be worked through with the Commission. But an early estimate suggests around $2 million on average a year, or about three percent of Alpine’s total revenue for the nine-year period.
“While we still have much to work through with the Commission, we have taken some initial actions,” Ms Clark-Reynolds said.
“First, we want to prevent this continuing and are resetting this year’s lines charges.
“Second, the Board will not pay an interim dividend for the three months ending March 2024.
“It is unfortunate this accounting error has occurred, but I can assure our customers, shareholders and other stakeholders that the Board is working towards a fair and pragmatic resolution,” Ms Clark-Reynolds said.
For more information please email support@alpineenergy.co.nz