You missed out a couple of salient facts:
1/ The government still owns 50% of Meridian, Genesis and Mercury.
2/ The government has not had to shell out any money to build new power stations themselves since they built the Clyde dam some 30 years ago, and the current electricity system was implemented.
In fact, all of the incremental power stations added to the national electricity network this century have been built by the 'low cost generators' Meridian, Mercury and Contact. It is the profitability of these three companies that has allowed them to implement their build programs, at no cost to the tax payer.
Why should generators with high running costs and maintenance costs be incentivised?
SNOOPY
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