‘Competition’ won’t solve our energy problem

Opinion: Electric power is very much in the news as potential shortages loom if the southern lakes are not adequately supplied with rainwater to enable hydro power for the country. The Government has the power to secure our energy supply, but it seems it doesn’t want to, instead giving the green light on construction for a facility to import liquified natural gas, a short-term stop gap that is likely to be expensive and energy-intensive.
The rationale seems to be because that is what other governments do, but unlike other countries, New Zealand is unusual in having a huge hydro-power resource. The problem behind our insecure energy supply is the absence of a national cooperative approach to managing and distributing power to take advantage of this country’s natural resources, instead handing our ‘god-given’ resources over to the private sector, which has been making record profits. Energy and Resources Minister Simeon Brown might claim we only need “more competition”, but more competition is unlikely to result in the generation of more electricity.