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Two power companies are putting prices up by about 3% from tomorrow, citing increased costs through the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
But other power companies are holding off as they wait to see the full effect of the scheme.
Around 350,000 Mercury Energy customers will be paying more for power from tomorrow. Mercury has told its clients the price of power is going up 3.3% to offset its costs from the ETS, but it can't say just how much the scheme will actually cost the business because it's running off government estimates.
One analyst believes Mercury is taking advantage of the trading scheme and confused customers. "They've known those prices all the time, the costs are already in the futures market, so July 1 is just a benchmark date...it's just an excuse for raising prices when it can be blamed on the ETS," says Molly Melhuish.
Contact is putting its prices up 3.2% and is also blaming the ETS.
However Meridian, Trustpower and Genesis say they plan to wait and see the true cost of the ETS on business before passing on costs to customers.
And the energy minister is now weighing in to the debate, warning that customers may start to be more picky.
"In the end if consumers start treating power companies like anybody else...then those companies might get the message they need to do a bit more to encourage loyalty," says Gerry Brownlee.
Critics say the key is transparency so customers know what they are paying, and why.
