Plea for power savings to continue

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Tuesday 11th September 2001

Employers and manufacturers are asking consumers to continue saving power even though the government is ending its official promotion campaign.

The Employers & Manufacturers Association says while there have not been blackout, there have been cuts to commercial production forced by massive price hikes.

Association CEO, Alisdair Thompson, says crisis over power prices isn't over, and lake levels are still dangerously low.

He says Energy Minister Peter Hodgson's official pronouncements to the contrary are meaningless until the power price comes down.

"The price of power won't come down until the lakes a full again, and they're still at historically low levels.

"The fastest way to get spot prices down is to save power - power generators and retailers told us that - so everyone should keep saving power."

Mr Thompson says the association is pleased that there is to be a review of the electricity market as it requested.

"Normally, competition increases as prices rise but in this case competition was greatly diminished as prices went up."

A cold, dry winter sent wholesale spot prices to record levels during the winter, causing financial burnout for companies like Natural Gas, which chose to dump its electricity retailing business rather than continue to carry the risk.

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