Change means power price up

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 32, 21 January 1986, Page 1

Change means power price up

The Winstone Samsung Industries Ltd Pulpmill at Karioi has been offered direct power supply by the Ministry of Energy 's electricity division as from 1 April this year. Winstone Samsung and the King Country Electric Power Board have been negotiating for some time over what the mill considered unfair pricing. Several large industrial companies including Winstone Samsung had been given the option of negotiating better prices from power boards or receiving direct supply from electricity division, in last year's June budget statement. The general manager of the KCEPB, Mr Neville Sanders, said that it had not really been a negotiating situation with the government in the background offering direct supply. "We have supplied Winstone Samsung since 1978

and have had to establish staff and facilities for that supply and this can't be dismantled overnight. "Other consumers will therefore have to pay an extra $30 a year on the average which will come on top of the 1 5 per cent increase in bulk electricity cost charged by the government from 1 April," said Mr Sanders. Mr Klas Kronqvist, general manager of Winstone Samsung Industries Ltd, said the extra $30 charge proved that the mill had been subsidising other consumers. "As an exporter we cannot do this when we export all our production and have to face world prices which are unrelated to New Zealand internal prices," he said. Mr Sanders however denied that other consumers were subsidised by Winstone Samsung. "Why should that consumer receive electricity at very favourable rates and not contribute to distribution costs in the community in which it is domiciled when other consumers have to pay?" he said. Mr Sanders said the direct supply policy appeared to be an attack by the government on domestic and small business consumers to the advantage of big business. Mr Kronqvist said that direct supply might not be taken on 1 April when it was offered as arrangements had to be made to transfer electricity from the electricity division's substation.