The first of five public "drop in" sessions for Aurora Energy consumers to influence a coming Commerce Commission decision drew 23 people to the Dunedin Centre yesterday.
At the start of June, Aurora applied to the commission to increase household bills in Dunedin by about $20 a month, in Central Otago by about $30 a month and in Wanaka and Queenstown by about $24 a month for three years to fund a major network investment.
Associate commissioner John Crawford said there had already been push-back against the proposed price hikes, and people also wanted better notification of outages.
"We’re not there to say who was right or wrong in the past; we’re not looking backwards.
"Everyone knows that this is a problem that needs fixing — we’ve just got to do it in the most cost-effective way and in a way that consumers will tell us will have the least impact on them, or the best way they can cope with these increased charges."
The drop-in sessions move to Alexandra on Monday.
