{"id":1887,"date":"2016-07-16T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T23:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/new-zealand\/press-release\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T09:06:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T21:06:56","slug":"nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ’s electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

This week the Electricity Authority \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s supposed power watchdog \u2013 decided it wasn\u2019t keen on being stuck in the middle of public and private interests anymore, so it picked a side<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Three guesses about which side it picked.<\/p>\n

Against a backdrop of huge public outcry<\/a>, the authority ruled that a controversial move by Hawke\u2019s Bay lines company, Unison, to charge its solar users an extra fee for choosing to use sunshine to power their homes, was not in breach of any regulations.<\/p>\n

What are they, vampires?<\/p>\n

To keep things \u201cfair\u201d it did give naughty kid Unison a mild telling off, saying the tariff (read: Tax) isn\u2019t as clearly service-based and cost-reflective as it could be, and doesn\u2019t offer sufficient choices to consumers.<\/p>\n

But really, let\u2019s not be fair: New Zealand\u2019s electricity watchdog has just decided to go off leash and crap all over our front porch.<\/p>\n

A ruling like this essentially now gives lines companies throughout the country the green light to follow Unison\u2019s lead and start taxing solar.<\/p>\n

And believe us when we say they\u2019re already lining up to do so.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that the Electricity Authority has never been a big fan of solar. It\u2019s even publicly advised New Zealanders not to rush into installing it in the past. No doubt it was well aware that by giving the nod for Unison to penalise solar, it could potentially kill the uptake of solar in our near future. Pretty crafty, really.<\/p>\n

And while all this is going on, the power companies are jumping up and down and saying we can\u2019t call the solar fee a tax.<\/p>\n

We say: \u201cIf it looks like a duck\u201d.<\/p>\n

To be clear, this is a targeted and compulsory levy imposed on solar users in order to raise revenue for the lines company. As the deliverers of a public service, these companies are the functional equivalent of a governmental body. Residents in the regions they serve have no choice but to use their services – there are no other alternatives.<\/p>\n

The Government set up this monopolised business model of the electricity industry during the energy market reforms, and it was a deliberate policy that resulted in the private profits of the electricity sector taking precedent over national environmental and social interests.<\/p>\n

And because solar is cheap and gives us the independence to generate our own clean energy, it threatens the profits of these big power companies. They want to keep ripping us off with high power prices and using dirty energy like Huntly\u2019s coal power. It\u2019s not exactly in their five-year plan that we become independent from them.<\/p>\n

But the purpose of a watchdog like the Electricity Authority should be to serve the interests of us and not those companies, especially on the back of the Paris Climate Conference where NZ pledged<\/a> to curb our dirty emissions.<\/p>\n

We must bring New Zealand\u2019s electricity watchdog to heel. All burning of dirty fuels like coal, oil and gas has to stop within a few decades if we want to avoid runaway climate change. Every renewable energy option that helps this must be rolled out, and solar is a crucial part of that.<\/p>\n

When enough people stand up and disrupt the agenda of an industry that puts profit before people, these energy fat-cats are going to have no choice but to adapt or be made redundant.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019ll have more control over our own power, about how we get it, and how we pay for it.<\/p>\n

It would be choice if you could be part of that fight with us.<\/p>\n

And stay tuned, because we\u2019re just warming up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get this freak back on its leash.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week the Electricity Authority \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s supposed power watchdog \u2013 decided it wasn\u2019t keen on being stuck in the middle of public and private interests anymore, so it picked a side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":1888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[29],"p4-page-type":[6],"class_list":["post-1887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-clean-energy","p4-page-type-story"],"yoast_head":"\nNZ's electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NZ's electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week the Electricity Authority \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s supposed power watchdog \u2013 decided it wasn\u2019t keen on being stuck in the middle of public and private interests anymore, so it picked a side.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-15T23:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-11T21:06:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"454\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sophie Schroder\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sophie Schroder\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sophie Schroder\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/0ff95177a1db73af99825e721c80fcce\"},\"headline\":\"NZ’s electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-15T23:14:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-11T21:06:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/\"},\"wordCount\":636,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Clean Energy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Greenpeace\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/\",\"name\":\"NZ's electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-15T23:14:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-11T21:06:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/0ff95177a1db73af99825e721c80fcce\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":454},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NZ’s electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\",\"name\":\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\",\"description\":\"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/0ff95177a1db73af99825e721c80fcce\",\"name\":\"Sophie Schroder\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6e586eb2d9ed24ea7f7d09707422717f1b15f00f36fc1780577d9410bf79225?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6e586eb2d9ed24ea7f7d09707422717f1b15f00f36fc1780577d9410bf79225?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sophie Schroder\"},\"description\":\"Read posts and articles written by Sophie Schroder\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/sschrode\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NZ's electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NZ's electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?","og_description":"This week the Electricity Authority \u2013 New Zealand\u2019s supposed power watchdog \u2013 decided it wasn\u2019t keen on being stuck in the middle of public and private interests anymore, so it picked a side.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/","og_site_name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz","article_published_time":"2016-07-15T23:14:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-11T21:06:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":454,"url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sophie Schroder","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_site":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sophie Schroder","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/"},"author":{"name":"Sophie Schroder","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/0ff95177a1db73af99825e721c80fcce"},"headline":"NZ’s electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?","datePublished":"2016-07-15T23:14:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-11T21:06:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/"},"wordCount":636,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg","keywords":["Clean Energy"],"articleSection":["Greenpeace"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/","name":"NZ's electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-15T23:14:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-11T21:06:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/0ff95177a1db73af99825e721c80fcce"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2018\/05\/128573_223977.jpg","width":600,"height":454},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/nzs-electricity-watchdog-afraid-of-the-sunlight\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NZ’s electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/","name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","description":"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/0ff95177a1db73af99825e721c80fcce","name":"Sophie Schroder","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6e586eb2d9ed24ea7f7d09707422717f1b15f00f36fc1780577d9410bf79225?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6e586eb2d9ed24ea7f7d09707422717f1b15f00f36fc1780577d9410bf79225?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Sophie Schroder"},"description":"Read posts and articles written by Sophie Schroder","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/sschrode\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7054,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions\/7054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}