What Our Customers Like to Know
Marlborough Lines Ltd is owned by the Marlborough Electric Power Trust for the benefit of Marlborough's electricity consumers. The sole beneficiaries of the Trust are electricity consumers connected to Marlborough Lines.
- All surpluses of the Company are either returned to Marlborough customers as a discount or reinvested in the Company's assets to increase their value and benefit customers long-term.
- The discount for the year ended 31 March 2009 was $5.83m ($6.56m including GST), paid to all customers connected to the Marlborough network. Last year the discount was $4.46m.
- A typical domestic customer (consuming 8,000 kWh as defined by the Ministry of Economic Development) received a discount of $170. The actual discount paid comprises a fixed element and a variable component related to the quantity of electricity used.
- Total customer dividends and discounts paid to 2009 were $54.41m.
- The Company's charges after discount compare favourably with charges for similar rural based networks in New Zealand.
- A customer pays a pre-discount line charge (excluding Transpower charges) of 29.8 cents in each dollar of total electricity account (post-discount 22.4 cents).
- 94.5% of customers responding to an independent survey said they were either very satisfied or satisfied with the Company's overall performance.
- During working hours fault calls and other calls are received directly at our Blenheim call centre and answered by our staff. After hours we use a call answering service to contact our faults staff. We do not use recorded messages, other than when callers have been transferred to individual extensions.
- We provide a free energy efficiency and electrical advisory service to customers. Our call centre and counter staff can also assist with customer inquiries about electricity supply, retail electricity company contacts and complaint systems.