My local electricity infrastructure provider is a private company, with the twist that all residents within their area are also automatically shareholders.

They operate "for profit", but profits are distributed amongst shareholders in the form of reduced bills, ie last year we didn't get bills for electricity transport for december, and the year before that there were no bills from august through december.

The "for profit" part pays infrastructure upgrades, so some years we pay the normal prices if there is infrastructure work being done, which in the end benefits all shareholders, meaning me (and other users).

Do you live in Auckland?

It sounds similar to the system I encountered there. I don’t remember all the details, I was only renting for a year.

It didn’t sound like it was NZ wide.