Power Story Shows Debate Needed

After reading the interesting article on the power price increases faced by the Kitchens in Feilding (May 11), I thought it totally unsurprising that these increases have outstripped the official CPI measure of inflation.

Inflation is far higher than the official reported CPI figure. The Kitchens probably already know this, but I digress.

The problem, in my mind, with the electricity market in particular is that the source of electricity generation, mainly natural gas, is scarce and expensive.

The spokesman for Genesis points out that prices will continue to rise at an accelerating pace (exponential growth in energy consumption of 2-3 percent is quoted) because Maui gas is “running out faster than thought”.

I think there are quite a few New Zealanders who are not surprised at the speed of Maui’s decline.

I think an honest and open debate about the true state of the world’s fossil fuel supplies is well overdue, not to mention New Zealand’s vulnerable place in the global energy scramble that is now starting to emerge.

Renewable energy, while a laudable and necessary work in progress, is not going to replace large on- demand power generation plants anytime soon, as Genesis admits.

Personally I think that one thing we need to look at is the relentless exponential growth of electricity use.

This is not sustainable over the long term and the sooner we rein in the growth the better.

This energy supply issue is global in nature and will require all of our collective skills to address. Of course anyone on a fixed income, as the Kitchens are, will be hurt the most by the price rises, and also there is the issue of that bloody daily charge that conservation does nothing to reduce.

As an aside, power companies essentially benefit from a market shortage of power with rising spot prices, don’t they? Nigel Gregory

Palmerston North

(c) 2007 Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.