Electricity Commission Charges To Retailers Said To Be “Weighted”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28950, 18 July 1959, Page 7

Electricity Commission Charges To Retailers Said To Be “Weighted”

Jn the process of fixing rates the Municipal Electricity Department had “consciously or unconsewusly weighted the charges against commercial users, Mr B. F. Anderson submitted to the Commission of Inquiry into the Distribution of Electricity ’A™ SL of the “ ury and

*1 Revision of the method of charging was overdue, said Mr • Apderson, and rates of power ’ ’ charged within the general classiflcation of “commercial” were inc consistent and in some cases unQ ‘ necessarily harsh, J “The price of power being J• • charged to commercial users is s>■ n ow so high,” he said, “that firms (I ’ with standby plants capable of l| producing 100.000 units a year are .1 m able to generate power more cheaply than the price charged I them by the M.E.D.” I He said the use of maximeters as a means of assessing con1 5 miners for their share of the peak load was no longer founded on fact, nor were the formulae ■ employed fairly operated. His » association recommended their <» replacement by a uniform standard for calculating the basic num- , her of units charged at maximum rates similar to the Wellington system. Mr Anderson said overhead charges representing some 29 per •» cent, of costs should be realloj cated to form “part of the rate charged to those consumers who use them most."

t answer to a question by Mr •• G. Leggat, counsel for the M.E.D., Mr Anderson said the new M.E.D. tariff introduced since the association had prepared its submissions had not gone far enough and substantially his submissions stiff applied.