Local Electricity Networks 

ENA’s 24 members are the lines companies marked on the diagram here. They range in size from Vector, with about 700,000 end user connections (representing about 1.3 million people, and 85,000 commercial and industrial customers), down to Buller Electricity, with about 4,000 connections.

They are owned or part-owned by 29 mainly community-based organisations of various types:

· 21 community electricity trusts

· 4 local bodies

· 1 community cooperative

· 3 overseas companies

Two companies are part-owned by a community trust and part by public shareholders, and two are part-owned by a local body and by a trust. Several operate a number of lines or infrastructure companies through a single management company.

Quite a lot of the work undertaken in the lines industry is handled by a handful of companies that compete for contracts issued by the various ENA members. This type of rationalisation is managed directly by the companies involved.

The electricity trusts that own most of the lines industry on behalf of communities or consumers are not involved in day-to-day management but, like any group of shareholders, have rights to appoint suitably qualified directors to the boards of the companies they own. They have their own organisation, Energy Trusts of New Zealand.

You can find statistics on the lines industry here.