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Talk about going in one door and out the other.More people than ever are struggling to pay their energy bills. There is a system designed to help those in that situation and a total of $562 million was paid in the last financial year through the Winter Energy Payment. There are additional emergency payments on top of this. And this completely ignores the wider health and social costs of 'energy poverty.' Interestingly, a similar amount - $482 million - was paid to the Government in dividends from its shares in the gentailers Meridian, Mercury and Genesis in the last financial year.
Many of us feel good about our ownership of the gentailers and what they provide back to the Government. We're in favour of a more circular economy and electrification offers a great opportunity to embrace that, but this is the kind of circular economy that doesn’t make any sense.
It is a band-aid solution and it is not addressing the root cause of the problem.
According to Statistics NZ, since December 2021, electricity prices have risen by 27 percent. Other estimates suggest prices will increase by around 30% before the end of the decade. And the latest from the Electricity Authority shows 40%, yes 40%, of households are worried they won't be able to pay their power bills in the next year.
If the Government is serious about reducing bills, it should instead be investing some of that money into solar in homes - and particularly low-income homes.
Even just $6-7 million would allow nearly every home to access long-term low interest finance through the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. Homes with solar could save around $1,000 per year, including loan repayments. And homes with the full suite of electric kit could save around $2,000 per year.
The Government would get its money back and breaking the link with the big energy landlords that keep ratcheting up prices would be much more effective at lowering energy bills than the usual tactic of applying ‘downward pressure’. That hasn’t worked.
The current system is not a good example of ‘smart economic management’, and neither is the similarly circular decision to cancel the $1 billion GIDI fund, which was designed to get gas users onto electricity, and spend “north of $1 billion” to build a new LNG terminal that will keep them hooked on gas and do very little to lower bills.
Real savings begin at home.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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