NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS NEWS
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Vector, the company that owns and operates Auckland’s electricity and gas distribution networks, reported growth in the power side of the business and a decline in the gas side for the three months ended 30 September 2026. The company’s network served 644,577 electricity connections at 30 September, up 1.6 per cent on the same point a year earlier, and added 3,478 new electricity connections during the quarter.
New connections were 8.8 per cent higher than in the September 2025 quarter, and net customer movement was 2,443, up 12.9 per cent from the prior comparative period. Vector describes the connections as billable installation control points, the individual points where power is supplied to a home or business.
Electricity distributed across the network totalled 2,491 GWh in the quarter, up 1.3 per cent on the September 2025 quarter. Residential volumes rose 2.3 per cent, and business volumes edged up 0.2 per cent.
The company attributed the residential lift to cooler winter temperatures, particularly in July 2026, which drove greater electricity use for heating. That is a weather effect rather than a change in how much power each household uses, and it sits alongside the connection growth as the two drivers of the volume increase.
For business customers, the picture was close to flat. A 0.2 per cent rise in business volumes means commercial electricity use across Auckland was broadly steady year on year, with households driving most of the overall network gain.
The gas distribution network moved in the opposite direction. Total gas connections were 119,706 at 30 September, down 0.6 per cent over the year, and new gas connections in the quarter fell 18.9 per cent to 163 from 201 a year earlier.
Net gas customers fell by 285, compared with a fall of 156 in the prior comparative period. Gas distribution volume was 3.5 PJ in the quarter, down 2.8 per cent on the same period last year.
Vector attributed the volume decline to lower demand from the industrial and commercial sectors. The figures point to a gas network that is losing both connections and throughput, with the volume drop concentrated among larger business users rather than households.
Reliability improved sharply on the electricity network. SAIDI minutes for normal operations (unplanned) for the six months ended 30 September 2026 were 25.0, against 53.9 in the prior comparative period, a fall of 53.6 per cent. SAIDI measures the average minutes a customer is without power.
Vector said favourable weather, a low incidence of adverse events, and the sustained benefits of reliability improvement initiatives supported performance. There were no Major Network Events during the period, while the prior comparative period included the impact of one Major Network Event when Cyclone Tam affected the Auckland region.
SAIDI minutes for planned operations were 45.5 for the six months, up 73.7 per cent on the prior comparative period but still within the regulatory threshold. Total SAIDI minutes, including major events, were 70.5 against 100.6, a 29.9 per cent fall. Vector noted that the SAIDI results are preliminary and subject to audit.
For Auckland businesses, the connection numbers point to continued expansion of the customer base the network serves, which matters for anyone planning premises or capacity in the region. The near-flat business volume figure suggests existing commercial users are not drawing materially more power than a year ago.
The gas figures are the more notable signal for industrial and commercial users. Fewer new gas connections and a 2.8 per cent fall in distributed volume, driven by lower industrial and commercial demand, indicate that some business gas use is falling away.
On reliability, unplanned outage minutes halved, reducing the risk of disruption for businesses that depend on continuous power. Vector cautioned that weather and the absence of major events both contributed, so the improvement should not be read as a permanent shift based on one six-month period.
Vector is listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange under the ticker VCT, and its majority shareholder, Entrust, holds 75.1 per cent of voting rights.
Source: NZX announcements
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