Power

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• Not available on their website yet.

• Redesign the Electricity Commission as a Sustainable Energy Commission with regulatory responsibility for all fuels.
• Require an urgent independent review of Transpower's planned grid upgrade with a view to developing alternatives that have less impact on the environment and better facilitate a sustainable energy system.
• Ensure that all major capital projects are tested against sustainable alternatives such as energy efficiency, fuel switching, renewable generation, load shifting and distributed generation.
• Investigate introducing 'progressive pricing', whereby the more energy you use, the more you pay, above a certain base level.
• Require energy retailers to buy or generate a proportion of their sales from renewable resources. (more here)

• Labour will create a new agency called NZ Power to act as a single buyer of wholesale electricity. It will also have the power to set prices.
• NZ Power will introduce a fairer pricing system where electricity companies get a fair return and consumers finally get a fair go. No longer will New Zealanders be forced to pay producers of cheap hydroelectric power as if they were producing expensive coal-fired power.
• Businesses will receive a double-boost: customers with more money to spend and also a lower electricity cost for their shops or plant. Independent economists BERL estimate our policy's economic impact will create thousands of new jobs. (more here)

• Not available on their website yet.

• Not available on their website yet.

• Ensure competition, innovation, and transparency in the electricity market to help give consumers better information and more choice. (more here)

• Seek to minimize the environmental costs of generating electricity whilst facilitating continuity of supply.
•  Ensure that applications for energy projects undergo a streamlined process directly through the Environment Court.
• Introduce a system of bulk purchase of electricity at wholesale prices to enable a 10 per cent discount for SuperGold cardholders. This would operate on a similar basis to Powershop.
• Provide incentives for ongoing investment in electricity generation, with a particular focus on local generation where feasible.
• Ensure that barriers to competition are identified and removed within both the electricity retail and wholesale sectors and support changes to the Commerce Act to strengthen the regulatory framework. (more here)

• Invest in small-scale localised electricity generation projects. Reducing our reliance and burden on the National transmission grid.
• Upgrade the national grid to ensure security of supply.
• Convert Transpower NZ Ltd to a public utility with the sole objective of transporting power through the National Grid at the lowest possible long-term cost to the consumer.
• Make it easier and cheaper for micro-generators to connect directly to local electricity networks (including a requirement for lines companies and electricity retailers to trade with micro-generators at 'fair' market rates). (more here)