Paul Fuge: Powerswitch Manager on the Electricity Authority's latest measures to drive down prices

It's being suggested we need to generate more power if we want to fix our electricity market. 

Major power companies will soon be required to charge less for power during off-peak periods and pay more for solar and battery power during peak periods. 

The Electricity Authority hopes the measures will drive down power prices over time. 

But Paul Fuge —the manager of Consumer NZ's Powerswitch website— told Andrew Dickens the ultimate driver of price is supply. 

He says the market is not delivering the amount of electricity needed for New Zealand's growth, and the country needs more power stations being built. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you got the power on? Have you got the
kettle on? Have you got the lights on? Have you
got the heater on? Here some news for you. New
deals will soon become available to bring down your power bill.
Rule changes by the Electricity Authority will force the Big
four retailers to offer lower prices for off peak power use.
It also requires the gent tailors to give better deals
to homes that sell power using solar batteries. Poor Fouje

(00:23):
is the power switch manager at Consuming New Zealand. He's
got up early for us. Good morning to your pool.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Didn't we already have off peak prices? Yes?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
We do, so those plans are already available. So some retailers
don't already offer those plans.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
So what's different now?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
What they're proposing to do is insists that all retailers
offer those types of plans. Is an option?

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So is it forcing them to offer them as opposed
to allowing them to offer them if they want to
offer them.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's correct, that's the Big four gent tailors. Now my
role as power switch manager, a lot of those retailers
are already working on those plans.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
How do they feel about them?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
What's just another offering I mean, it's good that consumers
have choice, and certainly time of use plans offer the
potential for households to save money on their bill. But
I would stress that only some households. You know, time
of use plans clear are costing you more if you're
not suited to them.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
But how again, do the gentators feel about them, because
this is going to hit their imagins.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Isn't it you to talk to them about that? But yeah,
I would say that they wouldn't be happy about it.
Being forced to offer things is not really in the
spirit of a free market. You know, retailers will offer
the plans that they think suit their customers best. In
some retailers off the time of use because the market

(01:51):
segment they're seeking to serve you looking for that sort
of plan, but although you know households are looking for
something different than that.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Now to the solar thing, I mean, the gen taylors
are going to be required to give better deals to
homes that sell power using solar batteries. But we heard
yesterday there was a firm that went bust that makes
the solar power. Another firm. Last year, only three percent
of New Zealand uses solar power. Compared to Australia in
America where it's up to thirty to forty percent. So
is this actually going to make it a meaningful difference.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
It won't hurt, but I don't think it'll make them
any many full difference. You remember that it's only suitable
for households that have batteries because the times at which
they you get paid higher rates of peak times and
that's when this hun generally not shining. So only six
of very small number of households, So only around three
or four percent of households have solared all in a
much less than im have batteries.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Now, Yeah, the second blake we've talked too from a
consumer this week because of the open letter that got
sign got printed in the paper saying the electricity sector
is broken. So Paul, how do we fix it?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
That's a really that's a really big question. We just
need to ultricity prices down because people are really hurting
and sower businesses and so the cost of electricity has
exceeds the cost of producing it by quite a considerable margin,
and it indicates the market's broken. So in terms of
facting it, we just need more supply. The market is

(03:16):
not delivering the amount of eltricity we need to cover
our growth in New Zealand's hydrology and things like that,
so they need to be better incentives put into the
market to make sure we're getting enough eltricity. New power
stations being built good.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
So Paul I thank you so much for getting up
for us. And that is Paul Fuse who's from Consumed,
New Zealand and he is the power Switch manager. For
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