National proposed building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Port Taranaki. Ostensibly for dry year support for the electricity generators. National were planning to have this signed up before the election. Act and NZ First appear to have quashed that. The outrage of consumers to being taxed yet again by the National government for their piss-poor 1990s energy management broke through?
The Greens’ energy policy is about reducing costs to citizens, and making our generation system more resilient
National Party, laser focused on the cost of living, threw away ~$1 billion on ferries, introduced Paywave changes that will increase fees & are now levying a new tax on Kiwi families and businesses
Brian Easton at Pundit provides a clear overview on what is happening in out large generator / retailer market at present. Their implicit collusion on excessive pricing is profiteering and even using future capital to pay off investors rather than improve the cost of and efficiency usage of power.
The way that the smelter operates is the exact equivalent of some thuggish barbarians with big swords extracting tribute for not burning, raping and pillaging. In other words Danegeld or any other form of protection racket exactly as No Right Turn points out. I’ll repeat his succinct post here. Meantime how can I encourage the wasteful fools at Meridian (and Contact) to start thinking about their paying customers rather than barbarian freeloaders
Australia is likely to have less of an issue with raging bush fires this year. La Niña is likely to give a break to the droughts with a wetter East Coast. Doesn’t stop record heatwaves as is happening at present. Climate change in action. What is also happening is equally predictable – the power systems get affected as well. Interesting to consider for similar climate issues here hitting our power.
New Zealand was always a odd place to have a aluminium smelter. Untapped hydroelectricity capacity at the bottom of the world. But thousands of kilometers from raw material sources. Tens of thousands of kilometers from the major markets. Now our ever rising electricity prices show that we really need that 13% of power in our electricity market rather than making aluminium.
Anyone who has been around tech for the last couple of decades will be aware of the liberating and industry disruptive effect of batteries. This caught my attention – “Tesla May Have Invented a Million-Mile Electric Car Battery”. It was well worth the read.
Submissions for the final report on the Electricity Price Review closed today at noon. My recent experience with Genesis Energy reveals pricing by power company majors not only rips customers off, but is immoral. The initial report of the EPR is unlikely to address this issue.
Damon over at civicanalysis wrote an interesting post over the weekend “How New Zealand can help save the world” (and then pointed my attention to it 🙂 ). It looks at what we can do to structurally alleviate climate change. But also looked at some of the economic benefits
There are bits of good news out there, but there’s a lot of denial around the mess we’re in.
The Crown Financial Statements to the end of November 2013 show that the sale of Meridian and Air New Zealand added hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the asset sales programme. Combined with the cost of the Mighty River Power sale and ancillary costs such as the Rio Tinto payout, the total cost of the asset sales now stands at $440m. National just likes burning the money of the taxpayers for no productive purpose.
“I just utter one fear…”
Remember that?
A joint Labour / Green announcement on plans for the electricity sector will be made on Thursday. My prediction is that the plan will be bold.
Apparently Meridian Energy are saying that there is unlikely to be a renewal of the Tiwai Point power contract. This would massively disrupt the value of sales of shares in state owned power companies by this government. However news is being released just before Meridian appears before a select committee. So I’m anticipating that it is a chicken little play to scare this weak-kneed government into an emergency wastage of taxpayers dollars – just like the Peter Jackson inspired Hobbit extortion.
If we can’t afford to buy the assets back, we should at least make clear we will regulate them severely and take the profit out of electricity companies…
Planning permission has been sought to construct the world’s largest windfarm off the Scottish coast. Estimated to cost around 4.5 billion pounds and […]
Independent energy analyst Molly Melhuish is putting out some facts that Tony Ryall will not find comfortable: we pay on average 28.1c per kWh from private companies and 24.79c per kWh from state owned companies. Why is the asset sales process being rushed through parliament, before Treasury can analyse Molly Melhuish’s research?
Brownlee ignored warnings that his reforms would increase power prices, not lower them as intended. Wholesale power prices have spiked from $50 to $300 per MWH. Exporters have cut production. Residential users are next. With power up and petrol breaking $2 a litre, energy is a handbrake on this supposed economic recovery.
We’ve seen the last minute back down on mining after tens of thousands of Kiwis stood up, we’re seeing a growing tide of anger as Kiwis realise that all our work rights and wages are for the chop.. but one policy that has avoided public criticism on the level it is getting from within the industry is Gerry Brownlee’s mad electricity reforms.
Powershop is a subsidiary of Meridian Energy, an SOE. It is the most highly rated power retailer by its customers, with 92% satisfaction. On […]
This just in – the electricity market isn’t working. Well, plenty of people were saying that would happen back in the 1990s when National […]
Reading National’s energy policy last week I was surprised to learn that of 1942MW of new generation that has come online since 2000 […]
A positive and ambitious energy policy that reflects the personality of National leader John Key, was announced today. Old people wiped tears from […]
A policy paper has been released on how the Government’s goal of 90% renewable electricity generation by 2025 can be achieved. Micro-hydro projects and […]
Here’s Gerry Brownlee in the Herald today: Brownlee said the [Whirinaki] power plant, near Napier, was intended as an emergency backup to be […]
