A spike in power prices is being put down to the fact a large amount of electricity is now coming from imported coal.

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Genesis Energy chief executive Mark England told TVNZ's Q and A about the pressures in our electricity and gas sectors.

"What happens when you’ve got low lake levels and a gas shortage is pretty much every retailer in New Zealand comes to Genesis and says 'can we have power?'

"The industry was set up that way, to work that way and it’s working well, but the consequence is we’ve got higher prices because we’ve got fuel scarcity."