Wellington, Feb 23 NZPA - Contact Energy says electricity retail prices need to rise, after reporting flat underlying earnings for the six months to the end of December.

Wellington, Feb 23 NZPA - Contact Energy is reporting a big jump in reported profit for the six months to the end of December, but its underlying earnings after tax were barely changed from a year earlier at $80.1 million.

Wellington, Feb 16 NZPA - Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee is being accused of avoiding questions by not speaking at an energy conference in Auckland today.

Wellington, Oct 29 NZPA - A consumer lobby is calling for the Government to reinstate electricity as an "essential service".

Wellington, Oct 14 NZPA - The High Court at Auckland has found that from 2001 to 2004 Telecom leveraged its position to charge downstream competitors disproportionately high prices for wholesale access to its network.

Wellington, Sept 30 NZPA - Labour says the Government could instantly bring down electricity prices if it stopped taking big profits from state-owned power companies.

Wellington, Sept 24 NZPA - New Zealand infrastructure investor Infratil is eyeing the privatisation of New South Wales electricity assets but is not optimistic that it will happen.

Wellington, Sept 14 NZPA - Prime Minister John Key isn't impressed with Labour's pledge to stop power companies fleecing consumers and says the previous government raked in dividends worth $3.1 billion.

Wellington, May 21 NZPA - Power companies used their market dominance to overcharge customers by more than $4 billion, but did it legally so won't be facing charges.

Wellington, Aug 8 NZPA - The Commerce Commission believes there may be reasonable grounds for an investigation into mobile termination -- the fees mobile phone companies charge other carriers to terminate calls on their networks.