Entrust, formerly named Auckland Energy Consumer Trust (AECT) prior to June 2016, is a trust for

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

consumers in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

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 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. Formed in 1993 as sole owner of the original Mercury Energy Limited, it is now majority owner of electricity and gas distributor

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. ...

, a child of the original Mercury, the other child being the retailing division of

Mercury Energy Mercury NZ Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation and multi-product utility retailer of electricity, gas, broadband and mobile telephone services. All the company's electricity generation is renewable. In August 2021, Mercury acqui ...

. The Trust will be wound up in 2073 (80 years after its formation) and its assets transferred to the local government authority or authorities in the Trust district (at present this would be

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a ...

). There have been calls for the Trust to be wound up sooner. AECT owned 75.1% of the shares in Vector in 2015, worth about $2 billion. It holds the shares on behalf of Vector's 300,000 customers and distributes dividends from Vector to its customers. The remaining 24.9% of Vector shares are traded on the

NZX New Zealand's Exchange (), known commonly as the NZX, is the national stock exchange for New Zealand and a publicly owned company. NZX is the parent company of Smartshares, and Wealth Technologies. On 30 August 2020, the NZX had a total of ...

Main Board stock exchange. As part of electricity industry reforms in 1993, the consumer-owned Auckland Electric Power Board became Mercury Energy Limited and AECT was set up to own it, keeping control in the hands of electricity consumers. Similar trusts were established elsewhere in the country. Mercury was the electricity distributor and

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, an ...

for Auckland, Manukau and Papakura. In 1998 the government split the electricity sector into distributors (lines companies) and retailers, and accordingly Mercury was split. The retail business was sold to Mighty River Power and the lines business being kept and renamed Vector Limited. AECT was the sole owner of Vector until 2005, when it allowed Vector to make a public float of 24.9% of its shares to raise capital to buy gas company NGC Holdings.

Election of trustees

The trust is run by five trustees elected using the plurality-at-large method every three years in line with the requirements of the Trust Deed. Trustees are electricity customers who live in the Trust area. The right-leaning C & R – Communities and Residents ticket has dominated election results for the five trust seats in recent years, and under its previous names ''Citizens & Ratepayers NOW'' and ''Citizens & Ratepayers'' in earlier years. The ticket has long been aligned with the National Party.

2003 election

2003 trustee election results for the five seats on the trust:

2006 election

2006 trustee election results for the five seats on the trust:

2009 election

2009 trustee election results for the five seats on the trust:

2012 election

2012 trustee election results for the five seats on the trust:

2015 election

2015 trustee election results for the five seats on the trust:

2018 election

2018 trustee election results for the five seats on the trust:

2021 election

2021 trustee election results for the five seats on the trust:

References

{{reflist

External links

Entrust Website
Energy in New Zealand Organisations based in Auckland