Trustpower's 9200 Dunedin domestic customers will pay nearly 8% more for their electricity from October on the back of a price rise and the new cost of GST.
The company yesterday confirmed the average customer would pay 5.6% more for their power, and that boosting GST to 15% would push the increase to 7.9%.
It all means they will pay an additional 39c a day after what was the first power price increase since October 2008, company spokesman Graeme Purches said yesterday.
Mr Purches, who in June suggested that the average increase would likely be in the 3% to 4% range, said the eventual increase reflected new activity costs and the wholesale cost of electricity.
Those wholesale costs included the impact of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which put a $25/tonne cost on carbon to make generation from fossil fuels more expensive.
The industry acknowledged that consumers were price sensitive and that company-switching rules made it easy for them to change supplier at any time. However, TrustPower did not anticipate any significant movement from October 1.
