PHOTO
The Dunedin City Council should cover the cost of upgrading Aurora Energy’s ageing infrastructure, not customers, Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker says.
Mr Walker has waded into the issue, which hit the headlines in November after the council-owned company revealed a three-year, $400million programme to tackle ageing electricity infrastructure in Dunedin, Central Otago, and Queenstown.
That would come with power price hikes of up to $500 a year for some customers.
Mr Walker has joined calls from Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Jim Boult for the Dunedin City Council to invest in the network, saying the council should have reinvested dividends from Aurora in previous years.
But Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins said if investments in the network had been made earlier, the costs would have hit consumers in the pocket sooner, through lines charges.
"A business like Aurora should have strategies in place to upgrade infrastructure so rises like this are not required to happen so dramatically," Mr Walker said.
While upgrades were needed, they should not be the responsibility of consumers, he said.
"The Dunedin City Council needs to front up and cover the costs — they were the ones who have benefited from the dividends, so it’s time they invest in the upgrades as they should have in the first place."
He was being "inundated" with phone calls from people concerned about the issue, he said.
"Aurora needs to come back to consumers with a much lower increase over a longer period of time to enable households to be able to cover these costs."
Mr Hawkins said if Mr Walker "could have just picked up the phone and called".
"Like anyone else, I encourage him to make a submission outlining his concerns during the public process," he said.
The issue was about more than deferred maintenance, he said.
"It’s about future-proofing the network to be able to support our zero carbon transition.
"Electrifying the vehicle fleet, for example, can’t happen without the infrastructure to support it."
Mr Hawkins did not answer a question about whether he would be open to the council investing in Aurora’s network in the future.
"I do agree with him that electricity prices are too high for some people, and [former National Party minister] Max Bradford’s failed market competition experiment can take some credit for that.
"This is why, with the support of the mayors around the region, we’ve asked for any penalties the High Court imposes on Aurora for non-compliance be reinvested in energy efficiency projects across the Aurora network area."