With the loss of 4,500 customers in the past two months, Contact Energy's recovery in electricity customer numbers has stalled. When it was at its peak in September 2008, since then, the company has lost a total of 44,000 electricity customers.

At April 30, the company had 476,500 electricity customers, lower than 478,500 at March 30 and 482,500 at April 30 last year.

With market predicted to be competitive continuously, it was in metropolitan areas where the rivalry for costumers was severe; especially where Contact and TrustPower were the sitting operators.

As the lake storage prices leaped, the near-term outlook for wholesale electricity prices had weekend, also due to the recent torrent in the southern hydro lake region. A further competition in the retail market would be endorsed by these lower wholesale prices.

While transmitting from the South Island to the North Island, Pole One of the HVDC inter-island power network link was expected to operate constantly through most of the winter, which did not happen. It had earlier been operating sporadically.

The nine power stations of Contact Energy generate New Zealand’s 25 to 30% of electricity. This generation has been declined to 756 gigawatt-hours in April, as compared to 806 gigawatt-hours in the last year.