Govt, rejects criticism of cheap power offer

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 31

Govt, rejects criticism of cheap power offer

PA Wellington It was too late for the Government to use arbitration to resolve arguments about direct power supply to two North Island pulp mills, said the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard.

The Government has offered direct power supply to the Hawkes’s Bay Carter Oji Kokusaku Pan Pacific and Karioi Win-stone-Samsung pulp mills. The Government had decided to make its offer only because the pulp mills had suffered “inequitable” charging from local boards for years, Mr Tizard said.

The Government was now exercising its legal right to offer direct electricity supply.

The chairman of the King i, i Country Electric Powell Board, Mr Ken Maidens, whose supply

area includes the Winstone mill, earlier said his board and the Government were on a “collision course.” He asked the Government to put its proposal before an independent arbitrator.

But Mr Tizard said the Government had offered the boards every chance in the last year to resolve the argument by arbitration. Its patience was now at an end, and the two mills could no longer be left at the mercy of "monopoly suppliers.”

Mr Maidens had said there was a difference in the cost of electricity from the Government direct supply and that supplied by his board. He said the difference was caused by operating and maintaining which the Government

said it did not intend to supply.

But Mr Tizard said the supply authorities were trying to blame the Government for likely higher domestic tariffs in their areas if the mills got direct supply. That overlooked the effects of local board charges on export companies which had to compete internationally, while at the same time carrying domestic consumers.

“What Mr Maidens should be concerned about is the jobs of a large number of people who ... are dependent on the success of the mills.”

If he wanted to do the best for his consumers, Mr Maidens should consider . the benefits of power supply authority amalgamation.