Mills accept Govt power offer

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 6

Mills accept Govt power offer

PA Wellington Two North Island pulp mills had accepted the Government’s offer of direct electricity supply, says the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard yesterday. The Carter Oji Kokusaku Pan Pacific mill in Hawke’s Bay and the Winstone-Samsung mill at Karioi accepted the offer, and were bypassing their local power boards. The boards concerned had also accepted the offer, Mr Tizard said. The next step was for each mill to negotiate with their power boards

to buy or lease existing equipment, now owned and run by the boards, which connected the mill load to the Electricity Division substation. Mr Tizard said the decisions carried out Government policy, and were a clear message to power boards of the need for cost-related tariffs. He dismissed claims at the week-end by the president of the Electrical Supply Authorities’ Association, Mr Innes Kerr-Taylor, that the offer was "blatant Government intervention and a departure from its policy of a free-market economy.” “The companies have

long complained they are not getting a fair deal from the boards with which they have been obliged to deal,” Mr Tizard said.

“They have compared this offer with what the boards indicated they were prepared to charge and have reached their own decisions to accept the alternative offered.

“If that is a departure from the Government’s policy of a free-market economy, it is time Mr Kerr-Taylor and the E.S.A.A. bought a dictionary that deals with common English usage.”