by RichardGardiner | May 19, 2015 | Energy
According to BloombergBusiness in the USA:
‘The race for renewable energy has just passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas and oil combined. And there’s no going back’.
‘The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels. The shift will continue to accelerate and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added’.
‘The price of wind and solar power continues to plummet and is now on par or cheaper than grid electricity in many areas of the world. Solar, the newest major source of energy in the mix, makes up less than 1% of the electricity market today but could be the world’s biggest source by 2050, according to the International Energy agency’.
‘The question is not if the world will transition to cleaner energy, but how long it will take’.
(more…)
by RichardGardiner | May 6, 2015 | Energy, ICT, Waste
The recent Commerce Commission ‘ruling’ on Unfair Contract Terms for utilities is great news for businesses.
Total Utilities has been negotiating utility agreements since 1999 and a recurring bugbear for us in the past 16 years has been the use of automatic contract roll-over and right of renewal/price-matching provisions by some suppliers to constrain effective competition.
Put bluntly, these clauses have been used as a ‘hospital pass’ by the suppliers in question to avoid a level competitor playing field – especially in the waste services/recyclables and natural gas markets.
As of 16 March 2015, the applicable new agreements must not include such clauses (i.e. Unfair Contract Terms).
It must be emphasised however that these contract clauses are still allowed if existing supply/service agreements are renewed for a further term.
The implications of this are very clear, businesses should negotiate brand new agreements covering the utilities etc in question – don’t just roll your existing agreement on the basis of unchanged contract terms and conditions.
Reference should be made to the Commerce Commission website for full details of their ruling. A PDF of the ruling can be downloaded here.
by RichardGardiner | Sep 14, 2012 | Energy
Coping with the worst recession in living memory has forced businesses to leave no stone unturned in the quest to improve their bottom line. Electricity is one cost that impacts on everyone and businesses impacted by the deregulated NZ energy markets fall into two basic categories:
1. Non-time of Use customers
Businesses with energy usage per ICP (Installation Connection Point) below approximately 200000 kWh per year (the actual figure varies dependent on the local lines company) are likely to be supplied on a non-time of use basis. These sites will have a standard non-TOU meter and be billed per kWh used and days supplied. This billing approach is similar to the metering of residential customers, although business electricity rates are generally significantly better.
2. Time of Use customers (TOU)
Businesses with energy usage per site above the 200000 kWh threshold will most likely be TOU customers. TOU rates are typically split into either 48-rate pricing (4 energy rates per month) or 144-rate pricing (12 rates per month). TOU pricing is customer specific although it is heavily impacted by prevailing market conditions when going out to tender. (more…)
