What if I told you that if you pay for electricity in Auckland’s Isthmus, South Auckland, East Auckland, or Waiheke Island, you have a say in how a $3.76b company is run?
What if I told you that one group has been in control of this resource on your behalf for the past 30 years, and is running it in an almost comically bad fashion?
What if I told you that this group is re-elected, every three years, by only 9.5% of eligible voters, and receives between $60,000-$200,000+ for their part-time roles?
What if I told you that in the next 5 days you have the power to change this?
Dubbed “Auckland’s political soap opera of the year” by Todd Niall in 2018, the Entrust Election determines who manages Entrust – a community-owned electricity trust which holds a controlling 75.1% stake in Vector.
Vector is the electrical lines company in Auckland, and at its current market valuation, that 75.1% stake is worth $2.8b. This is an enormously valuable community asset, so it’s vital that it’s managed with integrity by capable people. I’m writing this because if run well, it has the potential to have a major positive impact on the day to day lives of Aucklanders.
Every three years, those who hold power accounts in the Entrust area vote to select five trustees to control and manage this community asset, who in turn can appoint two directors to the board of Vector.
Yet, if you’re aware of Entrust at all, it’s likely because it dishes out a “dividend” each year. But the dividend is a bait and switch, with strings attached. For one thing, the value of the dividend hasn’t kept up with inflation, and has fallen in real value since 2006.
The incumbents, C&R, treat Entrust as a personal fiefdom, and it’s one that’s reportedly rife with infighting and bullying. As one person with inside knowledge of Entrust put it to Rod Oram in 2021: “Entrust is a superannuation scheme for failed National party politicians”. They spend thousands of dollars every year to advertise the dividend, yet do nothing to advertise the election.
Thanks to this self-serving approach, C&R have retained control of Entrust for the past 30 years. But they have not changed with the times. As power prices continue to rise and our energy supply is becoming less secure, we deserve more transparent, trustworthy, and active management of this vital asset. While Entrust has stagnated, the true value of what the community owns can still be realised.
Thankfully, this year, there is an opportunity to vote for that change. There is a highly qualified group looking to lower power bills by driving a widespread rollout of solar and batteries.
The More for You, Better for Auckland team.
The team includes two former Auckland Councillors in Pippa Coom and Paul Young, Greater Auckland’s own Patrick Reynolds, Urban Designer Emma McInnes, and Community Leader Jonaan McLeod. All have a wealth of experience in governance, and bring a diverse set of skills and knowledge to the table. They come with a drive to actually do something about the changing electricity environment, instead of just pretending that 30 years of drama, chaos and stagnation is fine.
You may have seen colourful billboards around Auckland, showing their smiling faces and who they are. You may have seen interviews in the media, or articles in the news. I would ask where the incumbents from C&R are? Why are their faces not on their billboards? Why have you never heard about them?
More for You, Better for Auckland, as Patrick explained a month ago, comes ready with a bold plan to unleash Vectors potential, drawing on research by Rewiring Aotearoa to advance a rapid expansion of home solar and battery as seen in Australia.
This will lead to lower power bills as solar is one of the cheapest forms of energy generation, which means more money in people’s pockets every week. The largest solar farm in New Zealand takes up 93 hectares of land, but this could be spread around the roofs of the largest 14 buildings in Auckland to power 13,000 homes.
It doesn’t matter if someone owns or rents a home, it doesn’t matter if someone is a business owner, accelerating rooftop solar will benefit everyone.
Not only that, but widespread solar and batteries will increase the resilience of communities during outages and weather events. By boosting solar on schools, marae, and community centres, community hubs are created to support people when disasters occur.
This is something we can do – if we choose to. Right now, we’re at a fork in the road. Either we elect a fresh team with a clear, evidence-based and future-proofed vision. A team that is motivated and driven to make a positive difference. The More for You, Better for Auckland team.
Or, alternatively, we let C&R continue to muddle along, embroiled in internal chaos, court battles and fighting. Trustees being bullied out, or leaving for ‘personal reasons’ only to turn back up as an independent to run against C&R (as is the case this year).
The only thing most people ever see from C&R and Entrust, is the big song and dance about the dividend. A dividend which conveniently lands in people’s accounts just before the election. But this dividend has not kept up with inflation. This year it was 70% of what it should be. They are selling Aucklanders short, expecting you to be grateful for it, and through a complete lack of promotion are essentially hiding the fact they are voted in by the community.
It’s time to turn up and turn out in the next few days, because every vote matters. To repeat what Rod Oram said about the last Entrust election in 2021, this is a “chance to clean out an Auckland shambles”. Share this post, talk to your friends and family – and remind them the power is ours.
You have until the 25th of October to vote (but you need to post it by the 24th of October, and yes it is a postal vote bar 12 drop off locations across the entire area). If you don’t have your ballot yet call 0800 666 030 and they can send you one overnight.
We have the power to lower our bills, build a more resilient community, and look towards a powerful practical vision for the future.
If that’s something you want, ensure you vote for those who want more for you and better for Auckland.
Does the “Vote Turn Out in 2024 As At October 17th” map show the eligible areas ?
So not North Shore, New Lynn West and Pukekohe?
Yes that’s correct.
Its only the historic Auckland Electric Power Board area.
Pukekohe is under Counties Power. So not part of the Auckland trust area.
For the historic Waitemata Electric Power Board area (north and west) the power network is owned by Vector but they aren’t part of the trust. In the case of WEPB the local customers all got shares handed out to them instead of having them put in a trust. The councils owned a part share but eventually sold it off to pay down debts. Everyone gradually sold off their shares to corporate interests, and it went through a number of iterations of who controlled it before Vector ultimately bought United networks. So while our networks in Waitakere and the Northshore are owned by Vector the customers in those areas are not beneficiaries of the trust.
North Shore and New Lynn West are in the former Waitemata Electric Power Board area from which shares were given out to connected customers. Eventually Vector bought out the shares however they are not part of the original AEPB area so not under Entrust although managed by Vector.
Pukekohe etc. are Counties Energy which is a totally different entity.
The WEPB company had various stupid names as they were bought out. I sold my shares probably 25 years ago to use as part of my equity for a house. That house has increased in value far quicker than some power company shares.
Entrust have little ability to control the dividend,
Vector is a regulated monopoly lines company.. the Commerce Commission dictates what their annual price increases can be,
This data
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/commerce.commission/viz/Locallinescompaniesperformancetrends/Home
Shows that Vector’s revenue per customer has fallen an average of 1.4% ( inflation adjusted) for the last 14 years, ( that;s $30/year).
It also shows that Vector’s cash profit per customer fell from over $400 in 2010 to just over $100 in 2023 ( inflation adjusted) – (Its spending a lot more on depreciation)
To boost the entrust payment, Vector must increase its profit, meaning wither higher lines charges for Aucklanders (not possible with the ComCom sitting on prices), or being more efficient, (Fewer staff?)
Dividends can increase through Vector providing service improvements or infrastructure investment. Instead they simply tried price gouging, which the Commission directed $13.9M to be returned to customers. They also failed to meet the required quality standards and were fined $3.575M. Just some of the expensive shambles of the current company management.
Those numbers are damning Greenwelly
This is exactly right. And not only that, work by the BCG in their The Future Is Electric report shows that lines companies need to spend a collective ~25 billion per decade each decade out to 2050 to enable electrification. And Vector needs to spend the biggest share of that.
The idea that Vector should pay more of a dividend whilst also managing a step-change in capex to support the electrification required to enable NZ to reduce its carbon is crazy. It’s even worse to think that batteries and solar will be the magic bullet.
For one thing, lots of batteries and solar is one of the very reasons why vector need to spend more. This leads to massive swings in voltage and current in transformers that are aging and not designed for two way powerflows.
Second, solar does reduce load behind the meter in the middle of the day. But unless this is pared with expensive batteries, it leads to a huge ramp up in demand as the sun sets and people start heating their homes. This means that you still need lines capable of meeting the peak demand because the peak demand is still high even if the average daytime utilisation is lower.
Third, take a look at the Rewiring Aotearoa report again. You’ll see that they repeatedly reference the fact that a grid connection is still essential. That’s because it provides that most valuable point of resilience for periods when the sun hasn’t shone for a few days and it’s hold. Network investment to handle this period – when all aucklanders solar or not are still relying on the grid – is essential
And finally, swapping out spend on our network for private investment in solar and batteries is not necessarily cheaper. Not especially when you take in account the tiny scale of each separate installation and the huge upfront cost. And, by the way, it’s only homeowners who even have that choice so you’ve already ruled out ~40% of the population. And then how many people can afford solar and batteries even if they do own their own home?
I’m not against solar and batteries. I think they have a huge part to play in a smarter power system of the future. But let’s not kid ourselves. Pippa and co either don’t understand the fundamentals of the industry or they’re lying through their teeth if they’re promising all this to get elected.
I see out Finance Minister is willing to quickly call out Wellington Council as “a shambles” based on media provocation but has nothing to say about the 30yr shambles at Entrust.
In the interests of balance here’s C&R’s fact check page:
https://www.c-r.nz/entrust-fact-check
The thing that surprises me most in reading the link is that Entrust gets only two out of nine Board seats for its 75.1% shareholding. Most investors holding well in excess of 50% would want more than half the Board seats.
This is a good article let more people knows what’s around them. Wish more articles like this can be written out. Thanks…
We pay power on multiple properties
Didn’t receive voting papers, so I finally called the voting help line, and found that all papers had been combined and sent to an apartment tenant who doesn’t use the physical mail box, and not to myself who pays the power bill (we include power in rent).
So we got our dividend fine, but could not vote. We are now getting more papers sent out and will be able to vote by Thursday/Friday, but not impressed by Entrust.
Interesting talking to the company running the election; they said that the database provided by Entrust was very messy, hence the issue with getting voting papers to the right address. And I believe them, but I have worked in the electricity industry and know the ICP database is clean with NZ Post validated addresses.
If dividends can be correctly routed to the right email address for most people, the requirement for voting to be via paper mail has to be malicious incompetence at best
As a person who holds hope in democracy, despite it being decimated and disestablished via undemocratic voting systems everywhere, I have voted.
For a functioning democratic process, people need to vote. Here I believe that our electoral system is far less corruptible than other parts of the globe, but as a population, we are not good at voting.
There are good reasons for this, but electricity is the very basis of our existence, and to not care who controls it, seems a dereliction of civic duty.
Let us hope that we have a better turnout this time, so that we do not feel powerless!!!
Local elections have proven that democracy is not valued highly enough, and if you have ever had to live in a less democratic place, you would understand how lucky we are to have real suffrage.
bah humbug
The inclusion of 666 in the 0800 number for ballot papers is intriguing.
Man I filled out voted papers but coming near a post box I have not for about 11 days so posting tonight.
This was me too. Finally walked to a postnox yesterday.
You do realise you need to use a DX postbox, not a NZ Post one? Presumably those posted via the latter will be, er ‘lost in post’.
Oh shit.
It’s like a Republican outpost.
Apparently either post network will work, they claim.
Yes this is voter suppression to a level the GOP would be proud of.
To have your vote counted you need to put your completed voting papers in the enclosed free post envelope by and into one of the following locations:
NZ Post mail box by 5pm Thursday 24th October
DX Mail mail box by 5pm Thursday 24th October
An orange ballot box in selected Woolworth supermarkets by 5pm Friday 25th October
The Marketing Impact Office: Level 1, 79 Hugo Johnston Drive, Penrose by 5pm Friday 25th October