A message from Mike Underhill, Chief Executive of EECA.
Every little bit counts – so do it now!
As I write, the southern hydro lakes are low and the electricity industry has launched a campaign to ask New Zealand businesses and families to think about their electricity use and to stop any unnecessary waste.
Targeting the waste makes sense – doing what you can to improve the energy efficiency of your home also improves your comfort, your health and saves you money – and this is something that EECA promotes year round.
There is a lot of waste out there.
In our latest consumer survey, 66 per cent of people said that they could save electricity this winter without impacting on their lifestyles. People know the potential is there, but for one reason or another they don’t get round to acting on it. The current situation with the lake levels provides the reason to act. It focuses people’s attention and says ‘do it now’.
In our experience, households can make, on average, a 10 per cent saving on their electricity bill by doing the basics. So, I think a 5 per cent saving, which Transpower says would probably be enough to take the current pressure off the system, is achievable with no pain.
Turning your appliances off at the wall, using the towel rail for just a few hours a day, having a shorter shower and doing cold water laundry washes all add up to electricity savings. It’s simple stuff that you may feel you have heard a hundred times before, but are you actually doing them?
The fact is, they are simple, but they work.
History has shown that we do it when we have to. Kiwis get the concept of banding together to get through challenging times, and they don’t mind doing it. Eighty per cent of respondents in our survey said that they were willing to do their bit to conserve electricity if there was an issue this winter. And that is because we are pragmatic.
We know intuitively that we could save a bit if we put our minds to it.
We know that this saves us money. If we think about it, we also know that having a predominantly hydro-based system means we are dependent on the weather. But we overwhelmingly support renewable energy generation – 95 per cent of people surveyed think renewable energy is something New Zealand needs to focus on for the future – and if we want the benefits of a clean electricity system then we need to deal with the challenges it throws us every few years when we have a La Nina weather pattern and experience drought.
Developing a mix of renewable energy that keeps on generating when the lakes are low is a key part of the answer.
Especially, we have scope to significantly increase generation from our wind and geothermal resources.
We have 2230 MW of wind energy either under construction, consented or in the consent process at the moment – easily enough additional generation to get us through any tight winters. And wind energy holds its place as our most favoured generation type – 88 per cent of people said they support it now, and 91 per cent said they felt it will have a positive impact for New Zealand in five years’ time. Currently, we get approximately 2.5 per cent of our electricity from wind energy. There is the potential to take this to 20 per cent as we move towards our target of a 90 per cent renewable electricity system by 2025.
Geothermal is another sustainable form of energy generation that has good levels of support and huge potential in New Zealand. Commissioning of the 90 MW Kawerau geothermal power station has been brought forward and is due to come on stream in July, and there is enough untapped resource to see a threefold increase in the amount of electricity we generate from our geothermal resources.
Managing our electricity supply is a balancing act.
We want renewable electricity and, of course, we want enough supply to meet our needs. But we don’t want to build unnecessary capacity just so we can keep wasting electricity – waste that we are paying for daily.
So, it makes sense to make a few minor changes to the way you use electricity today so we can all enjoy the benefits tomorrow.
Mike Underhill
Chief Executive of EECA