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| Smart Meters Not Dumb Lines |
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| Written by Russel Norman | |
| Thursday, 05 July 2007 | |
 The Green Party is disappointed but not surprised that the Electricity Commission has approved Transpower’s massive new powerlines into Auckland without seriously examining the alternative package of sustainable solutions. “Sustainability starts with making better use of existing energy supplies rather than always thinking of building more electricity generation and more transmission lines” says Greens Co-Leader Dr. Russel Norman. “The Electricity Commission itself has said that investment in energy efficiency is more cost effective than investment in new generation and transmission, but by approving Transpower ’s application they have given out the opposite message of more and more generation and transmission. “This upgrade is only needed to deal with the peak demand on winter nights, it has nothing to do with the Auckland blackout in June last year, which was caused by poor maintenance. “The Electricity Commission has not properly investigated an alternative package that could have deferred the need to upgrade the line by many years. Such a package would include a combination of: • Energy efficiency measures for homes such as smart metering, subsidies for home insulation, solar hot water, and building code improvements; • Energy efficiency measures for businesses such as accelerated depreciation on energy efficiency investments; • Use of wood waste for heating in clean-burning wood pellet burners in homes; • Direct use of gas in homes and businesses, instead of burning it in power stations to make electricity and transmitting it to Auckland which is less efficient; • More use of wood waste in wood processing plants to generate heat and electricity; • Investments to cut losses from lines; and • Investigation of smaller scale renewable generation closer to and north of Auckland. “Resources were never allocated towards investigation of these alternatives because the focus is more generation and more transmission rather than sustainability. “Smart metering, just one of a package of measures, allows households to monitor their electricity use against the spot price for electricity, which creates incentives to shift power use away from peak periods in order to save money. Many people would jump at the chance of using electricity when demand and price is low, which would reduce peak demand significantly in Auckland. “When you add concerns about the impact on communities, landowners, the landscape, and the electromagnetic radiation from the lines it just isn’t a good decision. “We hope that the Government will not ram through this proposal and will allow those affected by this decision to have full consultation on the significant environmental and health impacts.” |
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