Anyone who’s tried to get their head around the energy market knows it’s absolutely mind-bending. Here’s a summary of the millions things I’ve read and people I’ve talked to that probably won’t make you feel better but might explain your existential dread open.substack.com/pub/kirstyjo...
Did you catch the first episode of this podcast by Messrs Renney and Miller? Utterly eye-opening This statistic: for every dollar of electricity sold in the last week of 2024, 92c was pure profit for the gentailers. But of course the govt is also a shareholder www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBW9...
Everyone generating power through solar panels and sending it back to the grid need to stop....just stop!
Many being charged for it
Overseas vehicle to grid is a thing. So when vehicles are plugged in there is a huge array of power stored at batteries that can be used at peak and returned at lower usage. All evs in nz are capable. We just don't do it
Just a few solar panels on my garage roof generates 40kwh on a reasonable day. Does the government do anything to encourage this? No. Are the energy companies interested? No. Result is we have huge pile of coal at Huntley and Onslow trashed by this Luddite government.
Do we have feed-in tariffs? Nope: indeed the High Court supported the lines companies charging a tax on feeding solar into the grid. A feed-in tariff would set a guaranteed floor price for a house contributing to grid.
Absolutely loving your work shining a light (haha) on this stuff. It's so important and it's frightening how much this will cripple us as a country unless something is done, fast. Not an expert but seems to me like incentives for home solar + storage should be happening to plug gaps for now.
I'm sure you're aware of this but linking for anyone reading about the profound effect it's having in Australia reneweconomy.com.au/stunning-suc...
Great article, thanks Kirsty!
The marginal pricing BLEW MY MIND when I first learned about it. The idea that you get paid by the most expensive kW going into the grid. The incentives this creates are great for adding more solar but lousy for actually retiring coal.
Thanks Kisty for a great summary. As others have noted. The numbers tell us that privatising our energy sector has been a resounding failure.
Indeed. As we knew at the time. It is disgraceful we do not have political representation willing to re-nationalise it.
Labour governments benefitted from the dividend flows too. They had better energy policy (excluding Onslow) but still didn't make any significant improvements to the sector. As voters we need to make it an election issue. It is cost of living pressure point that can be managed much better.
This seems self evident but it is as much as I can find on current energy policy. (Paywalled) www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/...
"May ask"... Sausage roll vibes as usual
Yes, exactly. Also, how much of mugs do they think we are to still be buying that any of that is about reducing prices for household consumers? The line must go up remember.
*The very same thing they promised with the removal of the low user rates, I might add. Of course they were never going to do that.
Labour's last weak attempt was to appallingly remove the low user rate, which entirely predictably did nothing to help anyone but increased the power bills of the low users. 100% agree. It's an election issue for me. I have several non negotiables and this is one of them.
Privatising any utilities is a resounding failure, the UK should have been a lesson but the $$$ always win
m.youtube.com/watch?v=NicE...
Seems to be an issue everywhere.
Nationalise it. No public good service should be for profit. We know what the outcomes are.
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Thanks. I've been wondering about the dread thing 😳 Can you do water next?
Combined with our electricity system being so easy to understand youtu.be/p3sZr0OF22A?...
Imagine my shock and surprise on getting my last bill; fixed line charges jumped to the moon! I'm now in a position of having to pay ~$37/wk for using ~$4 of electricity! I complained to a friend who works for gentailer, they said it's Vector's charges. I emailed Vector to ask 1/n
a) what is the quantum of lines works needing to be done? b) what is the timeline (so I know the charges will come down)? c) what is the quantum of lines works done in the past? Hopefully I'll get some answers. Thousands of people are similarly shocked I suspect. 2/2
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Western States Petroleum Association is & has been manipulating prices, speculating "excess" & moving "excess" supplies around its network to keep prices high. Be certain to check out "last chance alliance" which exposes the WSPA's multiple campaigns of 🐂💩 about price of gas at the pump. RECEIPTS !