why are power prices so high?

[Addicted to NZ]

Canada's "CANDU" reactors are great till you start retrofitting them -

Nuclear station refurbishment cost overruns now pegged at $475M....The $1.4 billion-refurbishment, being handled by the federal Crown corporation the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), began in the spring of 2008, with the reactor originally scheduled to be back up and running by October 2009.

Officials now say it's unlikely Lepreau will return to service before February 2011.

It's costing New Brunswick close to an extra $1 million per day for replacement power and other costs while the reactor remains offline.

Makes me wonder, where exactly would NZ get this replacement power if they had to deal with this situation?

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswi...#ixzz0niXwvUbB

New Brunswick pop is less then one million....the citizens will be paying for this for a very long time....

Power cost here, if I did the math right on our power bill, after fees, surcharges, taxes etc....works out to approx 17.78 cents per kw

Service fee = $21.63

1300kw/hrs @ 9.69cents/kWh = $125.97
1629kw/hrs @ 9.22cents/kWh = $150.19

Water heater service = $5.84

HST = $39.47


Total = $343.10/1929 kWh = 17.78 cents/kWh (cnd dollar) x today's exchange rate 24.18 kWh NZ dollar. How does that compare ?

Oh...NB Power predicts power rates will rise an extra three per cent next year because of cost overruns refurbishing the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswi...#ixzz0nidHtwmb

NB'rs have had a 30% increase in their electricity bill in four years.

[SueDonim]

I looked at a combined solar/wind set up for our place.

The cost was the equivalent of paying our electricity bills at current rates for 21 years - and still only produced 60% of our supply!

Gee Kiwi Mac, you always struck me as an "off the grid" kind of guy (I mean that in a good way)

[guzzis3]

It's a hell of a lot better than burning coal or diesel to produce power.

Regard to guzzis3's anti-privatisation view. You have to consider the type of good or service because I don't know of any nation that has fully met the wants of their citizens through comprehensive socialism. Furthermore, in the are of privatisation, there is truly no such thing as a monopoly. Whereas in the socialist point of view, gov'ts will maintain their monopolistic powers regardless of the amount of waste that goes on within the organisation. As in the previous post, airlines is a good example of where privatisation works.

First let me say it's not an anti privatization view. Privatization is entirely appropriate where there is real competition. The problem with the electricity grid and the telephone lines is that duplication is a large and irrational expense. In practice the distribution owner has their competition over a barrel. We have seen this happen in Australia is spectacular form, so much so that the government is now proposing to spend many billions building a government owned fiber network because no one can do business with the now privatized telstra.

Rather I support privatizing the non monopoly elements, generation, retail, and retaining government control (but not funding nor all management functions) in order to stop gouging. Same with trains and planes. Selling Quanta was probably a good idea, selling the airports really wasn't.

I am politically middle of the road and abhor both rampant socialism and conservatism. I have no ideology, I like what works.

Now as I promised for reference. Brisbane, Australia, deregulated retail so prices may vary. This is my electricity rates in cents, effective from 20/05/2010:

Supply charge 33.4213 per day
Any time rate 18.843 kWh
18 hrs/day controlled rate 11.319 kWh

The latter applies only to things on that circuit, like the hot water storage unit.

[Ngeru]

Now as I promised for reference. Brisbane, Australia, deregulated retail so prices may vary. This is my electricity rates in cents, effective from 20/05/2010:

Supply charge 33.4213 per day
Any time rate 18.843 kWh
18 hrs/day controlled rate 11.319 kWh

The latter applies only to things on that circuit, like the hot water storage unit.

Seems the biggest difference here is the daily supply charges

Converting your rates to NZ $$s at todays rate 0.7870

Supply charge 33.4213 per day = NZ40.27 Ours is 91.0 cents per day

Any time rate 18.843 kWh = NZ 22.70 cents V Not too much variance to ours @ 22.09 cents

18 hrs/day controlled rate 11.319 kWh = NZ 13.64 although this option is available I wouldn't know the going rate here, as we have a different type of tariff, being on uncontrolled night rate 11.05 cents per Kwh.

Prices do vary quite a bit around NZ, as well as by supplier.

[petri]

2) When building a reactor areas of volcanic or earthquake risk are quite a big no-no Sort of rules out NZ anyway!

Japan? I would consider it earthquake prone country and they are the third largest nuclear electricity producer in the world (after France and US).

Wouldn't NZ be a optimal place for something like this?
http://www.statkraft.com/energy-sources/osmotic-power/
I know NZ doesn't have the background resources like Norway but NZ could built a new industry out of osmotic power knowledge if they invested in it. Norway has already done the same with hydro power in the past.

[Super_BQ]

New Brunswick pop is less then one million....the citizens will be paying for this for a very long time....

What can you expect from a have not province? All of N. America has de-centralised grids meaning power is sourced anywhere on the continent. In NZ's case, setting up 1 nuke plant does not mean existing hydro stations will be de-commissioned.

There is a driving factor for upgrading these power plants. It's so the state gov't can reap huge profits by selling power down south. New Brunswick power board certainly doesn't operate the way BC gov't does for BC Hydro.

Besides, the comparison of cost of power in New Brunswick is not a fair comparison of power prices across Canada. Futhermore, exchange rates should not be a factor because a $1 earned in NZ is the same as a $1 earned in Canada (ie. an accountant in NZ gets $50K a year will be the same pay as $50K for an accountant in Canada). It's not a tangeable product. 20c /kW/hr for NZ doesn't factor line charge and cost per day. You may be surprised NZ rates are still 1/2 as much more than NB rates.

[Kanga]

Neat posts from people into the explanations for the cost of electricity here- proper interesting thread

Can't really add to why but thought I'd chip in with how I cope- we pay a flat $100 per fortnight to the power company via DD and this has resulted in a nearly $400 build up thus far, which means we can plug those heaters and de-humidifiers in without fretting. I'd suggest this to anyone coming over and likely to be on a lower/middle wage. The utility companies offer all sorts of smooth pay options where they spread the cost but only after a period of time where they've assessed your usage, which seemed daft to me as I could just hop onto my bank website and instruct payment on payday resulting in the same thing. Being hit with a $300+ power bill hurts- been there, done that.

[Wooly_Cow]

Japan? I would consider it earthquake prone country and they are the third largest nuclear electricity producer in the world (after France and US).

Good point but I would add with their population and industry and lack of natural resources they don't have much choice (they already import boat loads of oil, coal and gas).

New Zealand DOES have a choice so the safety issue is a consideration.

....historically speaking Japan could always pursue the same course of action they tried in the 1930's

[mattandjax]

I looked at a combined solar/wind set up for our place.

The cost was the equivalent of paying our electricity bills at current rates for 21 years - and still only produced 60% of our supply!

We have a 1kw wind turbine on our house (it is a new eco build) in the UK and it is rubbish. I have it turned off now as it actually uses more electricity than it produces (to keep the battery charged).

On one of the windiest days it managed to produce 700w in about 10 hours, just enough to light a bulb. This was accompanied with a noise akin to a turbo jet taking off.

The problem is that the blades are just to small to be efficient and the wind is not consistent enough (the blades keep rotating to match the gusting wind and then lose the main flow of wind taking 30 secs to "catch" the wind again)

Matt

[VileTraveller]

Japan? I would consider it earthquake prone country and they are the third largest nuclear electricity producer in the world (after France and US).

Apologies for the thread necromancy. I was just wondering if attitudes against nuclear power in NZ have strengthened since the disaster in Fukushima?