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    Re: Revealed: Brits are paying the highest electricity bills in the entire world Archived Message

    Posted by John Monro on November 20, 2022, 12:10 am, in reply to "Revealed: Brits are paying the highest electricity bills in the entire world"

    For NZ the mean price is around 33 c/kWh = 16p / kWh. (It varies from 44c/kWh in Kerikeri, to 29c/kWh in Ashburton - significant difference, for which reason I am unsure. - there may be a geographical component, but it's not at all obvious what this might be) Bear in mind though that 60% of more of our power comes from hydro, which costs just 3c/kWh to produce. In our market, like yours, we pay the highest marginal cost, and provide huge profits to low cost providers - it is crazy) You will not find this figure on the internet easily, as it is a closely guarded secret by some of the power companies. Since the neoliberal electricity reforms of the 1980s, which included privatisation of retail electric and partial privatisation of generators, domestic electricity prices have tripled in inflation adjusted terms since 1974, most since the reforms. Industrial and commercial consumers prices have stayed static or even fallen in inflation adjusted terms. This was at least partly deliberate, as the companies complained that domestic consumers were getting subsidies from the commercial sector. All very well, but that's not an effective way to promote efficiency in the commercial sector and it is a very regressive form of pricing for the poorer consumers. Those "subsidies" so-called were a pricing mechanism with a serious social benefit. It's worth reading Yanis Varoufakis in regard to the electricity "market" in Europe, the UK, and this includes countries like NZ and Australia who have introduced much the same reforms. For instance; https://braveneweurope.com/yanis-varoufakis-should-electricity-markets-be-reformed-or-disbanded

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