There are fresh calls for the Government to step in regarding excess dividends allegedly being pocketed by the shareholders of power companies.
A report from the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, First Union and 350 Aotearoa claimed the big power companies have been delivering excess dividends to shareholders - contributing to more than 100,000 Kiwis living in energy poverty.
It showed that from 2014 to 2021, the four big generator-retailers have collectively paid out $3.7 billion more to shareholders than they have earned in profits.
Dividends are money that is made outside of profit from a company, they can be acquired by re-valuing or selling assets.
The report said that the payouts had starved Aotearoa's electricity network of the investment it needs to build new generating capacity. It also said power prices have been hiked during a cost-of-living crisis and said the country had been set back 10 years on its climate goals.
The NZCTU, First Union and 350 are all calling for the Government, which is a majority shareholder in the power companies, to propose resolutions that will channel profits into new renewable generating capacity and use dividends to buy back generator-retailer shares.
NZCTU chief of policy Craig Renney told Breakfast he is worried that the structure of generator-retailers is leading to bad outcomes for consumers.
"We're not seeing the generation required in New Zealand," he said. "Over the past 10 years, our generation has been stuck at exactly 10,000 mW hours a year.
"What that means is we're not bringing on the new renewables that we need to, we're unlikely to meet our Paris climate agreements, and as a consequence, consumers are going to pay in the pocket for higher energy bills now and in the future."
He said that the rising cost of energy due to the generator-retailers is causing many Kiwis to have to choose between heating, eating or doing other things.
350 Aotearoa's Alva Feldmeier said that Kiwis are suffering as the delays to decarbonisation are taking away their "right to clean energy".
She wants to see the money earned through excess dividends reinvested into stopping the country's reliance on fossil fuels and establishing clean energy.
"Last year, we saw more coal being burned than in previous years, and this will continue - unless we put an end to this," Feldmeier said.
"They are literally not using this to invest back into renewable generation."
She claimed the reason the country is burning more coal and subsequently releasing more carbon into the atmosphere is to put money into shareholders' pockets as things like coal are more expensive.
The Green Party has also released a statement calling for more investment in new generation methods that will lead to cheaper and cleaner power.
"Climate action and support for energy-poor households should be a core design feature of our electricity market," the party's energy and resources spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said.
"Access to clean, affordable energy is an essential component of a dignified life, yet successive governments have designed an electricity market that puts shareholder profit ahead of public interest.
"As today's report shows, these design flaws have led to massive underinvestment in generating capacity and low-carbon technologies."
Renney said that the best way to solve the issue was to get the Government to step in, similar to how they did with supermarkets and petrol prices.
"The prime minister used the phrase 'social license', and I think there's a real question to be asked of the social license of the generators here," he said.
"We've seen action on the petrol companies by the Commerce Commission, we've seen action on the supermarkets - we think there's a similar case to be made here.
"We need more Government action in this space to actually change the market because we're inevitably going back to bad outcomes."
The Minister of Energy and Resources Megan Woods has been contacted for comment.
SHARE ME