Latest retail gross margin data published

The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko has published the latest retail gross margin (RGM) data for the 2024/25 financial year.

The RGM is retailer revenue remaining once the costs of electricity, metering, distribution, transmission and levies have been deducted.

We have communicated about some drawbacks around using the current data collection for assessing competition from gentailers. Nevertheless, we have published the data to allow visibility of changes in independent retailers’ costs and margins.

To better assess retail competition, the Level playing field Code amendment paper includes proposed changes to the RGM data collection and a proposed requirement for gentailers to submit Retail Price Consistency Assessments.

If implemented, this would allow us to monitor whether gentailers’ retail pricing bears an economically justifiable link to costs, and indicate whether they are squeezing the margins that independent retailers can make.

We expect to announce a decision on this in May.