From the other side of the world in New Zealand, electricity stakeholders are struggling with the same questions as in the US. How do distribution companies maintain revenue, while PV and battery system installations are growing at incredible rates?
PV and other distributed resources allow for the redirection of energy revenues into assets with a payback period and no fuel cost, as opposed to the unrelenting monthly electric bill from the electric utility. Sounds good to me, but our energy networks must serve the communities they were built around. The social nature we have sustained for the past 100 years or so serves many needs. Not least of all low-income consumers. If the balance of society creates disparity of benefit, we’ll never achieve our full potential. Therefore, we must support our fellow man.
What we need all around the world is leadership. If electric utilities no longer control everything and consumers can defect, then who should lead? Tough questions like these are what drive ProtoGen’s team. Let’s work together.
SEANZ (Sustainable Electricity Association New Zealand) supports the findings of a report released today that electricity pricing structures need to change but is disappointed with the proposed solutions which will only entrench the stranglehold Electricity Distribution Businesses (EDB’s) and Electricity Retailers have over low-income consumers.