• Get distributed renewables online as fast as possible to drive fossil fuels right out of the electricity generation mix
• Impose low-price contracts on established hydro generators (effectively tax away their rents)
• More fundamental: get ready to renationalise hydro into a single integrated operation and use it to counterbalance intermittent renewables – especially if in the meantime you have got local energy pools/networks going
• Even more fundamental: plan to re-integrate large hydro and geothermal generation with the Transpower grid to hold final price down while covering all costs
More from Geoff Bertram:
Some immediate policy suggestions
• Get distributed renewables online as fast as possible to drive fossil fuels right out of the electricity generation mix
• Impose low-price contracts on established hydro generators (effectively tax away their rents)
• More fundamental: get ready to renationalise hydro into a single integrated operation and use it to counterbalance intermittent renewables – especially if in the meantime you have got local energy pools/networks going
• Even more fundamental: plan to re-integrate large hydro and geothermal generation with the Transpower grid to hold final price down while covering all costs
Lots more analysis by him on the electricity market and how flawed it has been since the 1990s at https://geoffbertram.com/publications/#the-new-zealand-electricity-industry