Power sector critic John Harbord understood to be next chairperson of Electricity Authority

Saturday, 11 July 2026

John Harbord, a critic of the power sector who once released a report estimating Meridian Energy had made $3.5 billion in “excess profits”, will be appointed to chair the Electricity Authority, the industry’s top regulator, it is understood.

The vacancy is being filled days after Energy Minister Simeon Brown released a letter voicing concern over Meridian taking what he described as a “unilateral approach” to accessing water at Lake Pukaki, the country’s largest hydro lake, under the fast-track regime.

Brown is rumoured to have been unimpressed by Meridian’s response to concerns he voiced over the potential for the additional water rights — a resource previously controlled by Transpower — leaving the country short of hydro reserves in a crisis.

As chairperson of the Major Electricity Users Group (MEUG), which represents major power users, Harbord has often taken positions at odds with the country’s major gentailers, which the Electricity Authority (EA) regulates.

Read more:

• Energy Minister Simeon Brown accused Meridian of ‘unilateral approach’ over Lake Pukaki rights

• Nearly 47,000 electricity connection requests refused last year

• Electricity Authority staff breached guidelines accepting dinners from Meridian

In 2021, the MEUG, under Harbord’s stewardship, commissioned and released a report that estimated Meridian had made $3.5b of profits, over and above its weighted cost of capital, over the preceding 20 years.

The same year he remarked that power generators were incentivised to keep the market on the “precipice of shortage”, to maintain high prices.

Meridian’s current chief executive, Mike Roan, disputed the report’s findings, describing them as out of step with other analysis.

Harbord said at the time some MEUG members had lost confidence in outcomes being delivered by the wholesale electricity market because of high prices and suggested it could be time to check whether the so-called Bradford reforms that have underpinned the energy market since the 1990s were still fit for purpose.

The EA has periodically been criticised by small retailers as being too sympathetic to lobbying by the major gentailers and too uncritical of the Bradford reforms.

Associate energy minister Shane Jones has repeatedly labelled it “a chocolate teapot”.

The EA is currently looking into recent steep rises in power bills and has been taking a tougher stance on some consumer-related issues.