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Mercury NZ Limited is a
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
electricity generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its s ...
and multi-product utility retailer of electricity, gas, broadband and mobile telephone services. All the company's electricity generation is
renewable A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...
. In August 2021, Mercury acquired five operating wind farms and several wind farm development options from
Tilt Renewables Tilt Renewables Pty Ltd is an Australian electricity generation company. It was previously dual listed on the New Zealand stock exchange and Australian stock exchange. As of 2022, the Powering Australian Renewables has merged with Tilt Renewable ...
. At the same time, the first power from the newly built wind farm at
Turitea Turitea is a suburb of Palmerston North in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. It is located on the southern side of the Manawatu River, south of Massey University. Turitea is the home to Palmerston North's water supply and location ...
was generated – adding to the existing portfolio of nine hydro stations on the Waikato River and five geothermal plants located in the central North Island. In the year ended June 2021, Mercury had generated 3,611GWh of electricity through hydro generation and 2,594GWh through geothermal generation. In May 2022, Mercury acquired the retail business of Trustpower, including the retail customer base and Trustpower brand. The generation business of Trustpower changed its name to Manawa Energy Limited. In June 2022, Mercury launched fibre broadband as a retail product to be bundled for its residential electricity customers. Mercury's retail operations serve residential and small to medium business customers through its Mercury and Trustpower brands. It sells electricity, gas and broadband through Mercury and electricity, gas, LPG, broadband and mobile telephone services through Trustpower. Mercury has a pre-paid electricity product sub-brand GLOBUG. Mercury also service industrial and wholesale market customers offering electricity and natural gas products. Mercury has offices in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Rotorua, Taupō, Palmerston North, Wellington and Oamaru.


History

In the 1980s, the New Zealand Electricity Department (NZED) (a government department) controlled and operated almost all New Zealand electricity generation and operated the electricity transmission grid. The first phase of deregulation saw the New Zealand Government corporatisze the NZED and form the state-owned enterprise
Electricity Corporation of New Zealand The Electricity Corporation of New Zealand Ltd (ECNZ) is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise (SOE) formed on 1 April 1987, as a transition entity in the process of deregulating the New Zealand electricity market. Most of ECNZ's remaining liab ...
(ECNZ). In 1994 Mercury NZ Limited was formed by the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust to own and operate the electricity supply business previously operated by the community-owned local authority, Auckland Electric Power Board (AEPB). Also in 1994,
Transpower New Zealand Transpower New Zealand Limited (TPNZ) is the state-owned enterprise responsible for electric power transmission in New Zealand. It performs two major functions in the New Zealand electricity market. As the owner of the National Grid it prov ...
was separated from ECNZ and created as a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) to own and operate the national grid. In 1996, ECNZ split into two SOEs, ECNZ and
Contact Energy Contact Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generator, a wholesaler of natural gas, and a retailer of electricity, natural gas, broadband and LPG. It is the second-largest electricity generator in New Zealand (after Meridian Energy), g ...
. In 1998, law changes obligated AEPB to sell the electricity retailing and generation part of the business. On 1 April 1999, ECNZ was split into three – Genesis Energy,
Meridian Energy Meridian Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generator and retailer. The company generates the largest proportion of New Zealand's electricity, generating 35 percent of the country's electricity in the year ending December 2014, and is ...
and Mighty River Power. Mercury's electricity retailing division was sold to Mighty River Power, who continued the trading name Mercury Energy. The electricity distribution business Mercury Energy Limited changed its name to
Vector Limited Vector Limited is an electricity and gas distribution company in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the national number one provider of electricity distribution, number one provider of electricity and gas metering and number two wholesaler of LPG. ...
and continued the distribution and transmission operation. Mighty River Power took over the ownership and operation of the nine hydroelectric power stations on the
Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...
, New Zealand's longest river, and inherited assets of two largely decommissioned oil-fired power stations at Marsden Point, near
Whangārei Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. It is part of the Whangārei District, a local body created in 1989 from the former Whangārei City, Whangārei County and Hikurangi Town coun ...
and its share in the
Southdown Power Station Southdown Power Station was a natural gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine cogeneration power station in Southdown, a suburb in southern Auckland, New Zealand. When operational, it was New Zealand's northernmost power station with a capacity ex ...
(in conjunction with the Natural Gas Corporation). In 2000, Mighty River Power acquired the Rotokawa geothermal power station, to operate and maintain the station, and own the geothermal turbines in a joint venture with the Tauhara North No.2 Trust. Also, that year, Mighty River Power commissioned the Mōkai geothermal power station geothermal power station in a joint venture with the Tuaropaki Trust. In September 2002, Mighty River Power gained 100 percent ownership of the
Southdown power station Southdown Power Station was a natural gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine cogeneration power station in Southdown, a suburb in southern Auckland, New Zealand. When operational, it was New Zealand's northernmost power station with a capacity ex ...
. In 2004, Mighty River Power announced plans to refurbish the Marsden B plant to fire it on coal to increase supply security north of Auckland. Marsden B had been mothballed since it was completed in 1978 due to rising oil prices following the 1973 oil crisis and there being cheaper alternatives available. Greenpeace staged a nine-day occupation of the site in 2005, and after the Northland Regional Council granted consent, appealed to both the Environment Court and High Court, eventually overturning the consent. Mighty River Power appealed the High Court decision to the Court of Appeal, but in March 2007 dropped the proposal. In 2008, Mighty River Power increased its generating capacity by opening the 100 MW Kawerau geothermal power station, increasing supply security to the eastern
Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaw ...
, a large timber processing area. In 2010, it opened the 140 MW Nga Awa Purua geothermal station near
Taupō Taupō (), sometimes written Taupo, is a town on the north-eastern shore of Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake, in the central North Island. It is the largest urban area of the Taupō District, and the second-largest urban area in the Wa ...
with the largest single-shaft geothermal turbine in the world. The commissioning of Nga Awa Purua increased Mighty River's geothermal capacity to 385 MW making it the nation's largest geothermal electricity generator with 52.7 percent of all installed geothermal capacity. In 2009, Mighty River Power sold the Marsden B plant for $20 million to an Indian company, United Telecom. Resource consents for dismantling the plant were granted in June 2011, and the 20,000 tonnes of plant and equipment was dismantled later in 2011. In Dec 2011, the National Government announced plans to reduce its shareholding in the four state-owned energy companies, Contact Energy, Genesis Energy, Meridian Energy and Mighty River Power (Mercury) from 100 percent to 51 percent and to sell off the remaining 49 percent as part of its controversial "mixed-ownership model" plan. Mighty River Power was to be the first company to be partially sold in September 2012, pursuant to legislative changes and market conditions. However, threatened legal action and unfavourable market conditions saw the Government delay any sale until March 2013 at the earliest. On 5 March 2012, the Government began taking registrations of interest from the public in Mighty River Power shares. More than 35,000 people tried to register in the first six hours causing the registration website to crash for much of the day. By midnight, more than 90,000 people had registered. In April 2013, State Owned Enterprises Minister
Tony Ryall Anthony Boyd Williams Ryall (born 19 November 1964) is a former New Zealand politician. He represented the National Party in the New Zealand Parliament from 1990 to 2014. Between 2008 and 2014 he served as a cabinet minister, holding the post ...
, in anticipation of the sale, said director fees would be increasing from $49,000 a year to $85,000, and the chair's fees from $98,000 to $150,000, despite still being majority-owned by taxpayers. On 2 April 2013, The Financial Markets Authority approved the sale of Mighty River Power with the IPO (Initial Public Offering) on 15 April. However, the IPO was temporarily suspended on 22 April while a supplementary disclosure was issued, after the
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
and
Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...
parties in opposition announced plans to reform the electricity market if elected to government at the 2014 election. At the close of the IPO on 5 May, there were 113,000 shareholders, and on 8 May the opening share price was set at $2.50, raising $1.7 billion. The Government was slightly disappointed, blaming the Labour-Green policy for putting off many more potential shareholders, with the Finance Minister indicating before the policy was announced that the price would be in the $2.70 to $2.80 range The government retained 51.78 percent of the shareholding, with another 1.02 percent owned by other Crown interests (mainly the New Zealand Superannuation Fund). By September, shares had slumped to $2.16, well below the float price and in October the company announced it would be buying back up to $50 million in shares. In December 2015, the gas fired Southdown Power Station, a 170 MW combined cycle power station in south Auckland was closed. On 29 July 2016, after merging its retail and generation businesses the company changed its name to Mercury NZ Limited. The company also launched a new brand logo, moving from the Roman god Mercury, to a bee. Market research showed New Zealand had a stronger connection to the bee as a symbol. In August 2021, Mercury acquired five operating wind farms and several wind farm development options. At the same time, the first power from the newly built wind farm at Turitea was generated. In May 2022, Mercury acquired the retail business of Trustpower, including the retail customer base and Trustpower brand. The generation business of Trustpower changed its name to Manawa Energy Limited.


Power stations

Mercury operates 17 generation sites; 8 Hydroelectric Powerstations, 5 Geothermal, and 4 Wind Farms. In total, the company has 1884 MW of generating capacity – 1076 MW hydroelectric, 478 MW geothermal and 330 MW wind.


Generation developments


Subsidiaries

In addition to its generation assets, Mercury also incorporates or has major shareholdings in: * GLOBUG, a pre-pay electricity retailer


See also

*
Electricity sector in New Zealand The electricity sector in New Zealand uses mainly renewable energy, such as hydropower, geothermal power and increasingly wind energy. , 82% of electricity is generated from renewable sources, making New Zealand one of the countries with the lo ...
*
List of power stations in New Zealand This is a list of power stations in New Zealand. The list is not exhaustive – only power stations over 0.5 MW and significant power stations below 0.5 MW are listed. Power plants in New Zealand have different generating roles ...
*
Starship Foundation Starship Children's Hospital is a public children's hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. Opened on 18 November 1991, it was one of the first purpose-built children's hospitals in New Zealand, and is the largest such facility in the country. Althou ...
, a charity supported by Mercury since 2001


References


External links

* {{authority control Government-owned companies of New Zealand Electric power companies of New Zealand Companies based in Auckland Companies listed on the New Zealand Exchange 1999 establishments in New Zealand