Cold showers and offshore owners: Lengthy Wellington power outage anger

Monday, 12 May 2025

Wild weather brought down power lines in Wellington at the start of May.

Wellington’s mass power outage has stirred old memories of the privatisation – eventually leading to 100% ownership in the Bahamas – of Wellington’s lines company.

Wellington Electricity spokesperson Tom Holloway said about 12,500 homes lost power in the peak of the May 1 storm but, by Sunday, only a “small number” remained without. Those people likely needed to get private electricians in to fix the issues, which were not thought to be in the Wellington Electricity network, he said.

By the morning after the worst of the storm, about 1000 were without power. Extra resources were brought in from outside Wellington to help, he said. By Thursday, a week after the storm, all had power back except those who needed to get their own electricians in.

“There have since been secondary faults where network damage has shown up in the week following the storm, which may impact network reliability over the coming weeks,” Holloway said.

“It is a real worry when your electricity network is owned by someone on the other side of the planet,” says former Wellington City councillor Sue Kedgley.

After a series of sales starting pre-1990, Wellington Electricity was bought in 2008 by CK Infrastructure Holdings, a Hong Kong-based global company which in March had a market value of about $24 billion and remains the ultimate parent company.

But ownership records show Wellington Electricity Lines is ultimately owned by Wellington Electricity Distribution Holdings, with a listed address in the Bahamas. Financial statements, released on May 2, show it made a 2024 profit after tax in New Zealand of $15 million.

Other New Zealand lines companies – with the exception of Australian-owned PowerCo in parts of Waikato, Taranaki, and Wairarapa; and Firstlight Network with Canadian links on the East Cape – are locally owned. Christchurch and Dunedin councils own their own lines companies.

A Kelburn couple, in their 70s and 80s, spent six days without power, living with a young family operating with a lantern, head torches, early nights and cold showers.

“On Thursday night, I wanted to climb on the roof with my head torch and call for MED to come back,” one of them said.

The Wellington City Council Municipal Electricity Department (MED) was entirely council-owned before a series of sales, between about 1990 and 2008, saw it entirely privately owned offshore.

Anthony Scadden lost power in Hataitai on Friday, was told it would be restored on Wednesday, then had someone arrive on Monday night to turn the power back on. He said he had been contacted by Wellington Electricity three times since, including by a contractor who visited on Thursday to repair the already-fixed line.

A Google Maps image of the listed Bahamas ownership address for Wellington Electricity.

“It's pretty wild that Wellington Electricity's response to this had been so bad and mismanaged,” he said. Essential infrastructure services should not be run for money with profits “squirrelled away”, he said.

Wellington Electricity chief executive Greg Skelton said Wellington Electricity paid all applicable tax in New Zealand but the ownership structure was “what happens internationally” with the Hong Kong-based owners.

Sue Kedgley, who fought against the lines company being sold by the Wellington City Council when she was a city councillor in the 1990s, said the sale was sold to the public as being “more efficient, more-effective, better customer service”.

“Instead it has been flicked on and flicked on” with no evidence of investment in lines, she said.

“It is a real worry when your electricity network is owned by someone on the other side of the planet,” she said.

Kedgley last year wrote a piece in the Otago Daily Times as the Dunedin City Council considered selling its lines company.

“Contrary to assurances at the time, [Wellington’s] electricity network, once privatised, has been on-sold four times, and each sale brought windfall profits for its mostly foreign owners,” she wrote.

“Being privately owned, the first priority for them is their shareholders – this is about making a profit,” says Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy.

“But it also brought higher line charges for Wellington ratepayers, because the value of the network was inflated with each sale.”

Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy said red flags were raised about having the region’s electricity security in foreign ownership when he became mayor in the early 2000s.

“Being privately owned, the first priority for them is their shareholders – this is about making a profit,” he said.