New Zealand: “Are Electricity Prices Rising Too Quickly?”
December 16th, 2014Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
There are multiple retailers, so a functional market must exist!
Right?
Cartel. Cartel. Cartel. This is a word that crooks on both the left and right hope you’ll never understand.
In economics, a cartel is an agreement between competing firms to control prices or exclude entry of a new competitor in a market. It is a formal organization of sellers or buyers that agree to fix selling prices, purchase prices, or reduce production using a variety of tactics. Cartels usually arise in an oligopolistic industry, where the number of sellers is small or sales are highly concentrated and the products being traded are usually commodities. Cartel members may agree on such matters as setting minimum or target prices (price fixing), reducing total industry output, fixing market shares, allocating customers, allocating territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, altering the conditions of sale, or combination of these. The aim of such collusion (also called the cartel agreement) is to increase individual members’ profits by reducing competition.
After our solar power system was installed, I spent several months struggling with our power retailer to get our import/export meter connected properly. They hooked it up incorrectly two different times. Long story short, we finally received an accurate bill. Here’s why New Zealand is the most solar hostile country in the developed world (see the green arrow on our most recent electricity bill):
We normally pay about NZ$250 at this time of year. I like NZ$10 a lot better.
F these bastards. And we don’t even have batteries yet.
This machine kills fascists.
In case you don’t click through, here are some selected gems from the many satisfied customers who took the time to leave comments:
I clearly remember a certain bill birch saying that `we will all be better off and have cheaper power` back in the `90`s when the power companies were `freed` to compete. maybe all our power bills should be sent to him to pay
—martynA despicable industry, working on a cost plus mentality. It doesn’t matter how many companies are available if they are all driven by greed. The Minister conveys what he is told by officials and we should remeber that “Yes Minister” was a documentary, not a comedy. By the way, I’m a long term supporter of the Government but this industry is out of control.
—Gary HDoes not matter how many competitors you have if they all work together then there really is no competition. This is the case in NZ. Yeah yeah, we get the spiel about low margins, expenses blah blah blah yet all their profits have increased even with lower demand and their senior management are still getting huge salary increases and packages. We are to small for all this free market guano. It did not work when Douglas introduced it and it does not work now with a business friendly Government practicing corporate welfare on a grand scale.
—GrahamIt’s interesting to note that all the power company execs are all on a million plus. Says it all really. That money has to come from somewhere.
—IVAN TURKThey shouldn’t be rising at all in view of the current surplus of electricity. The more that power rises, the more you realise what a racket we are all caught up in. This isn’t an exercise about the real cost of electricity, it’s more about how to extract money from our wallets into the hands of power company shareholders. But conversely new technology is slowly evolving that will in time make current electricity providers near redundant to other than major users. This will be a sunset industry in the not too distant future.
—DJSTUGet alternative, off-the-grid energy! Use battery banks and screw the thieving power companies. Power prices will continue to wreck your budgets and winter will remain the nightmare of the poor, as they either stay cold so they can afford to eat, or pay the power bill. Utterly, utterly shameful for a supposedly 1st world democracy!
—The Orator
It goes on and on. I don’t see a single comment supporting the outlaw cartel that’s operating here.
Via: New Zealand Herald:
Residential electricity prices rose again on average in 2014, outstripping inflation and pushing up the cost of living.
Last month the Green Party released figures showing Kiwis are spending more of the pay packets on electricity, saying power bills make up 3.5 percent of expenditure this year.
Green Party energy spokesperson Gareth Hughes says power prices have gone up 25 per cent in six years, despite a 10 per cent drop in demand over the same time period.
The Government has rejected claims that the electricity market is failing, pointing out the large number of power supply companies available, giving people more chance to shop around.
