Switch your power
PLEDGE: Switch your power
Despite our numerous renewable energy sources coal is still used to generate electricity in New Zealand. We can put pressure on our electricity suppliers to move away from using fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy by using our consumer dollar.
Use the Clean Energy Guide to switch to a cleaner energy supplier.
http://www.cleanenergyguide.org.nz
- ‹ previous
- 101 of 106
- next ›
Unfortunately it makes no
Unfortunately it makes no difference who your supplier is, because electricity is a fungible resource in NZ. The only result will be that Meridian will be able to charge more to people who want to get into tokenism.
The sources of electricity production in NZ are dynamically changing on a minute by minute basis in response to the spot price, weather conditions, customer usage etc. Coal has a fairly high marginal cost, so it is used most when there are sharp peaks in demand, or weather conditions are not favourable for hydro.
If you want to reduce NZ's overall use of coal-fired electricity, the simplest thing you can do is change to a plan where the power company turns your hot-water cylinder off during peak times, and try to avoid switching things on between 6pm and midnight.
The other thing of course would be to lobby the government to reform the RMA so that it's easier to build things like wind farms. It currently takes longer (several years) to get a consent than it does to build the farm.
Yeah it makes no difference - up to a point
You are quite right - when you switch to Meridian it just means that the electricity bought *on behalf of you* is '100% renewable'. Unfortunately, that just means the power bought by Contact for my neighbour will have a greater gas-fired component to make up the difference.
As long as the two types of electricity (renewable and non-renewable) are 'fungible' (ie interchangeable) switching to Merdian (or some other equivalent) makes no immediate difference.
However, this only applies up to a point. If, for example, 'everyone' switched to Meridian then - to maintain their "100% renewable" promise - Meridian would immediately have to make a massive investment in wind farms and the like to cover the shortfall.
More practically if all the the 'renewable' electricity is used up by customers who expect that, and Meridian gets one more customer than that, then again there has to be an investment made in more windfarms to make up the difference.
And furthermore, the market effect (making it possible to sell renewably produced electricity at a higher price than gas powered electricity) actually kicks in well before that 'one hundred and first' customer.
Firstly, due to the *massive* transmission losses from moving electricity around the country electricity is already 'non fungible'. Most of the gas powered power plants are in the north island (closest to the maximum demand) and most of the hydro is in the south (where the lakes are). So, when a person in Auckland switches to '100% renewable' electrictiy it potentially has a greater market effect than if someone from Tekapo does the same. (Not sure if Meridian or equivalent is available in Auckland though - maybe not?)
Secondly, folks at power generation companies and retail companies do actually plan ahead. If they see a big and rising market sentiment for 'renewable energy' then that will affect their next decision as to extending that gas plant or building a new wind farm now.
Personally I switched to Merdian a while ago. You do what you can.
Bottom line: If 'everyone' switched it would have a massive effect right now.
--
Full disclosure - I guess I should mention that I worked on aspects of the electricity market trading system back in the 90s - as a computer programmer. However I don't think that makes my opinion tainted, just that I know a little bit about how the electricity market does (or does not) work.