Ryan Bridge: Look out Kiwis, your power bill is about to go up

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

I know, I know we're celebrating this morning, the OCR, the money back in your pockets that's coming, inflation coming down.

But MBIE has warned the government that electricity prices are likely to rise significantly over the next two years – this is a story from BusinessDesk.

See, we have all seen the spot prices market increase, skyrocket even, but we haven't felt that at home because our gentailors, the guys that we get it off, insulate us by hedging.

However, getting power to us is expensive and we've just been talking to Grant McCullum from Northland about this exact point.

40% of our bill is distribution and transmission.

Forget your weather, whether the wind blows, you know, the sun shines the rainfalls, whatever. Just getting it to us costs almost half of our total.

And that job is done by essentially monopolies: the distributors, the lines, companies, Transpower.

So the Commerce Commission regulates their profits, we would expect them to do.

The contracts last five years, the next contract up for renewal in March.

Your household bill for electricity could go up $15 per month or $180 per year, for some households that will be $20 per month, $240 per year.

MBIE say there is a serious risk that some homes won't be able to afford heating.

And we know what happens when people can't heat their homes, the hospitals fill up, industry and business feel the squeeze, and our thin growth forecasts could also be squeezed by something like this.

So what's the moral of the story? Well, basically, go and buy yourself a nice warm jumper, get a hot water bottle. And if you are single and living alone, you have until April to find someone to cuddle at night.

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