Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Paul Fuge: Powerswitch Manager on the Electricity Authority's latest measures to drive down prices

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Paul Fuge: Powerswitch Manager on the Electricity Authority's latest measures to drive down prices · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Have you got the power on? Have you got the
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: kettle on? Have you got the lights on? Have you
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: got the heater on? Here some news for you. New
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: deals will soon become available to bring down your power bill.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Rule changes by the Electricity Authority will force the Big
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: four retailers to offer lower prices for off peak power use.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It also requires the gent tailors to give better deals
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to homes that sell power using solar batteries. Poor Fouje
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is the power switch manager at Consuming New Zealand. He's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: got up early for us. Good morning to your pool.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Didn't we already have off peak prices? Yes?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: We do, so those plans are already available. So some retailers
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: don't already offer those plans.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: So what's different now?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: What they're proposing to do is insists that all retailers
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: offer those types of plans. Is an option?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: So is it forcing them to offer them as opposed
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to allowing them to offer them if they want to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: offer them.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: That's correct, that's the Big four gent tailors. Now my
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: role as power switch manager, a lot of those retailers
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: are already working on those plans.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: How do they feel about them?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: What's just another offering I mean, it's good that consumers
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: have choice, and certainly time of use plans offer the
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: potential for households to save money on their bill. But
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I would stress that only some households. You know, time
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: of use plans clear are costing you more if you're
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: not suited to them.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: But how again, do the gentators feel about them, because
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: this is going to hit their imagins.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Isn't it you to talk to them about that? But yeah,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I would say that they wouldn't be happy about it.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Being forced to offer things is not really in the
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: spirit of a free market. You know, retailers will offer
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the plans that they think suit their customers best. In
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: some retailers off the time of use because the market
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: segment they're seeking to serve you looking for that sort
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of plan, but although you know households are looking for
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: something different than that.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Now to the solar thing, I mean, the gen taylors
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: are going to be required to give better deals to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: homes that sell power using solar batteries. But we heard
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: yesterday there was a firm that went bust that makes
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the solar power. Another firm. Last year, only three percent
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of New Zealand uses solar power. Compared to Australia in
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: America where it's up to thirty to forty percent. So
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: is this actually going to make it a meaningful difference.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: It won't hurt, but I don't think it'll make them
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: any many full difference. You remember that it's only suitable
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: for households that have batteries because the times at which
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: they you get paid higher rates of peak times and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: that's when this hun generally not shining. So only six
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: of very small number of households, So only around three
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: or four percent of households have solared all in a
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: much less than im have batteries.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, the second blake we've talked too from a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: consumer this week because of the open letter that got
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: sign got printed in the paper saying the electricity sector
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: is broken. So Paul, how do we fix it?
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: That's a really that's a really big question. We just
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: need to ultricity prices down because people are really hurting
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and sower businesses and so the cost of electricity has
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: exceeds the cost of producing it by quite a considerable margin,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: and it indicates the market's broken. So in terms of
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: facting it, we just need more supply. The market is
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: not delivering the amount of eltricity we need to cover
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: our growth in New Zealand's hydrology and things like that,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: so they need to be better incentives put into the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: market to make sure we're getting enough eltricity. New power
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: stations being built good.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: So Paul I thank you so much for getting up
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: for us. And that is Paul Fuse who's from Consumed,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: New Zealand and he is the power Switch manager. For
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to
• 3:42
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• 3:45
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