The company has now sent to the Commerce Commission its proposal to lift prices across its three networks to help pay for the company’s infrastructure on its last legs.
Aurora had told the public it was considering charging a higher price but after customer feedback for "no frills", safety-focused improvements to its networks and Covid-19 reducing population forecasts, it came down to what it is today proposing.
Under this proposal, households in Dunedin would face an average increase of $288 over three years from next year until 2024.
The increase was highest for Central Otago and Wanaka at $360 over the three years, while for Queenstown it would lift prices by $240.
The different prices Aurora can charge over its three networks is regulated by the Electricity Authority.
The overall revenue it can bring in is decided by the Commerce Commission.
To bring household costs down the company has cut its intended spend on infrastructure from $404 million to $383 million.
"We’ve ... listened to customers and they’ve said don’t put any frills in," Aurora chief executive Dr Richard Fletcher said.
"We’ve presented options in that [consultation] paper — some enhancement options — they didn’t want any of that. We’ve taken that out."
He said the plan was "a purely safety and renewal-driven plan".
"The plan that we are proposing now ... is firmly based on delivering a safe network. That’s its primary focus. We’re not looking at increasing its level of reliability.
"What we will do with this level of spend is stabilise ... the deterioration in reliability we’ve been seeing over the last few years.
"But we’re not looking at a big step change in improvement."
An independent review of its plan also helped reduce the $404 million proposed spend.
They would keep some investments such as an asset management plan, which Dr Fletcher said would help the company "make better informed decisions in the future".
"Things like that are still in the plan and quite rightly I think."
Covid-19 struck during the time Aurora was deciding on its prices and that meant they had to change their population forecasts for places like Queenstown.
"Where the investment is being driven by new connections and growth ... we’ve re-looked at our investments and in a number of areas we’ve deferred investments," Dr Fletcher said.
The chief executive said the company elected to ask for a three year price from the Commerce Commission, despite being able to get five years.
"We expect we’ll be under scrutiny for up to 10 more years," he said.
The company had had up to 25 years of under-investment and "we’re not going to catch that up in three years".
That meant Aurora would have to continue at an "elevated level of spend," for a decade.
The Commerce Commission will carry out its own investigation into Aurora’s pricing before releasing a draft decision on November 12.
A final decision is expected March 31 and the following day the decided pricing would begin.
