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Speaker 1: Have you got the power on? Have you got the

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Speaker 1: kettle on? Have you got the lights on? Have you

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Speaker 1: got the heater on? Here some news for you. New

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Speaker 1: deals will soon become available to bring down your power bill.

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Speaker 1: Rule changes by the Electricity Authority will force the Big

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Speaker 1: four retailers to offer lower prices for off peak power use.

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Speaker 1: It also requires the gent tailors to give better deals

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Speaker 1: to homes that sell power using solar batteries. Poor Fouje

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Speaker 1: is the power switch manager at Consuming New Zealand. He's

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Speaker 1: got up early for us. Good morning to your pool.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: Didn't we already have off peak prices? Yes?

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Speaker 2: We do, so those plans are already available. So some retailers

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Speaker 2: don't already offer those plans.

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Speaker 1: So what's different now?

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Speaker 2: What they're proposing to do is insists that all retailers

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Speaker 2: offer those types of plans. Is an option?

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Speaker 1: So is it forcing them to offer them as opposed

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Speaker 1: to allowing them to offer them if they want to

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Speaker 1: offer them.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, that's the Big four gent tailors. Now my

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Speaker 2: role as power switch manager, a lot of those retailers

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Speaker 2: are already working on those plans.

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Speaker 1: How do they feel about them?

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Speaker 2: What's just another offering I mean, it's good that consumers

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Speaker 2: have choice, and certainly time of use plans offer the

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Speaker 2: potential for households to save money on their bill. But

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Speaker 2: I would stress that only some households. You know, time

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Speaker 2: of use plans clear are costing you more if you're

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Speaker 2: not suited to them.

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Speaker 1: But how again, do the gentators feel about them, because

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Speaker 1: this is going to hit their imagins.

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Speaker 2: Isn't it you to talk to them about that? But yeah,

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Speaker 2: I would say that they wouldn't be happy about it.

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Speaker 2: Being forced to offer things is not really in the

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Speaker 2: spirit of a free market. You know, retailers will offer

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Speaker 2: the plans that they think suit their customers best. In

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Speaker 2: some retailers off the time of use because the market

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Speaker 2: segment they're seeking to serve you looking for that sort

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Speaker 2: of plan, but although you know households are looking for

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Speaker 2: something different than that.

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Speaker 1: Now to the solar thing, I mean, the gen taylors

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Speaker 1: are going to be required to give better deals to

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Speaker 1: homes that sell power using solar batteries. But we heard

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Speaker 1: yesterday there was a firm that went bust that makes

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Speaker 1: the solar power. Another firm. Last year, only three percent

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Speaker 1: of New Zealand uses solar power. Compared to Australia in

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Speaker 1: America where it's up to thirty to forty percent. So

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Speaker 1: is this actually going to make it a meaningful difference.

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Speaker 2: It won't hurt, but I don't think it'll make them

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Speaker 2: any many full difference. You remember that it's only suitable

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Speaker 2: for households that have batteries because the times at which

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Speaker 2: they you get paid higher rates of peak times and

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Speaker 2: that's when this hun generally not shining. So only six

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Speaker 2: of very small number of households, So only around three

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Speaker 2: or four percent of households have solared all in a

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Speaker 2: much less than im have batteries.

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Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, the second blake we've talked too from a

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Speaker 1: consumer this week because of the open letter that got

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Speaker 1: sign got printed in the paper saying the electricity sector

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Speaker 1: is broken. So Paul, how do we fix it?

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Speaker 2: That's a really that's a really big question. We just

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Speaker 2: need to ultricity prices down because people are really hurting

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Speaker 2: and sower businesses and so the cost of electricity has

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Speaker 2: exceeds the cost of producing it by quite a considerable margin,

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Speaker 2: and it indicates the market's broken. So in terms of

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Speaker 2: facting it, we just need more supply. The market is

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Speaker 2: not delivering the amount of eltricity we need to cover

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Speaker 2: our growth in New Zealand's hydrology and things like that,

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Speaker 2: so they need to be better incentives put into the

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Speaker 2: market to make sure we're getting enough eltricity. New power

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Speaker 2: stations being built good.

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Speaker 1: So Paul I thank you so much for getting up

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Speaker 1: for us. And that is Paul Fuse who's from Consumed,

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Speaker 1: New Zealand and he is the power Switch manager. For

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Speaker 1: more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to

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