28 February 2013
The Trustees of the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust (AECT) have today made a submission to the Electricity Authority (EA) expressing their opposition to the proposed changes to the transmission pricing methodology.
AECT Chairman, William Cairns said Trustees are concerned the EA proposal will result in Auckland consumers (and consumers generally) paying more for electricity transmission services.
“We believe a key responsibility of the EA is to develop initiatives that will benefit consumers. From our analysis the proposed changes do not achieve that and are most likely to lead to higher electricity prices. We believe the costs of the HVDC link should continue to be paid for by South Island generators.
The EA proposal is radical, complex and untested and creates a very real risk that consumers will be worse off and the beneficiaries of the changes will instead be the generators”, he said.
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