Team appointed to report on power supplies

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 6

Team appointed to report on power supplies

A team appointed yesterday will study options for restructuring electricity distribution in Canterbury during the next nine months. The four-member team will be chaired by a former Town Clerk of Wellington and chairman of the Urban Transport Council, Mr lan McCutcheon. It will begin work when its composition is confirmed and make its recommendations to the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard, in June. The team was formed after Mr Tizard’s announcement in July that the electricity distribution industry needed to be restructured to fit into new commercial and regulatory conditions. Areas covered by the North Canterbury and Central Canterbury electric power boards, Kaiapoi Borough Council, the

Municipal Electricity Department, Riccarton Borough Council, the Port Hills Energy Authority, and Ashburton Electric Power Board will be examined by the team. Mr Tizard said that change to electricity distribution was imperative. Distribution should be put on to a fully commercial, competitively neutral basis with private companies. "We can no longer continue with structures which were devised decades ago to meet very different economic and social circumstances,” he said. Although the team would be funded by the Ministry, no particular alternative was favoured, said Mr Tizard. The team would consult supply authorities, other local bodies, and “anyone else” in the affected area.