Power Outage - Fucking third world cuntry

[Winston001]

I kind of agree Paul. There is an argument (which appeals to me) that a skinny mountainous country with a small population needs one integrated electricity supplier. We used to have one - the New Zealand Electricity Department. They ran dams and high voltage lines. They also educated electrical engineers.

Now we have Transpower and at least 5 different major generating companies all competing in the same small market. The irony is that Transpower, Meridian, Mercury, and Genesis are all owned by the Government. That leaves only Contact and Trustpower as the private enterprise businesses.

Frankly I think the government should buy these out and revert to a national system.

[Motu]

Agreed - and I would add the hardship was felt by business owners (y'know - the ones that had the balls to put their saving on the block, and actually get out there and do something - rather than just enjoy the safety of a "secure job"

Zero income yesterday - and yet I still have to pay my guys for doing nothing,pay my rent...and...and...and.It's like going to the supermarket,filling up your trolley,then going through the check out and paying for it....and walking out with nothing.

[Pixie]

No, because that would send a message about Government ownership of infrastructure at a time when they are trying to shed responsibility for all NZ infrastructure.

Road, rail, power generation and telecommunications are the things that I would argue SHOULD be Government owned. Commercial organisations don't do anything until they absolutely have to, and then it is usually the cheapest bid. Government on the other hand plans to dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s, irrespective of cost.

Transpower is state owned.
You may remember,that whenever an upgrade is proposed some group of new age nimby arseholes go out protesting.It's happening in Helensville at the moment.They don't want a powerstation,but they whinge when there are power outages.
If they don't like living under a powerline,they should get jobs and move somewhere better

[ManDownUnder]

No, because that would send a message about Government ownership of infrastructure at a time when they are trying to shed responsibility for all NZ infrastructure.

Gotta disagree there - the message they want to send and the truth are 2 different things. They bailed out the BNZ, they bailed out Air NZ.

This is effectively Power NZ...

Road, rail, power generation and telecommunications are the things that I would argue SHOULD be Government owned. Commercial organisations don't do anything until they absolutely have to, and then it is usually the cheapest bid. Government on the other hand plans to dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s, irrespective of cost.

Agreed. NZ is too small to have anything other than a natural monopoly on those assets. Natural Monopolies, given a profit motive, will naturally abuse a competitive market.

This power outage has affected the whole of NZ (to a greater or lesser extent)... it needs looking at!

[Paul in NZ]

And this is the argument for centrally controlling things like power distribution and generation. One small group cannot hold the whole country back because the govt can legislate and MAKE it happen.

No one wants power lines in the back yard and obviously, compensation comes into it but... We all want power.. Bit of a problem really! Sometimes you have to make shitty decisions that adversely affect a small group for the greater good of the country. Not something the current crop of popularist pollies want to do under any circumstances...

The hidden goodies that came with the old days are only just becoming apparent. Govt agencies trained world class engineers from school leavers on and now? Train yourself and there might be a job and will certainly be a massive student loan.. sad....

[James Deuce]

Transpower is state owned.
You may remember,that whenever an upgrade is proposed some group of new age nimby arseholes go out protesting.It's happening in Helensville at the moment.They don't want a powerstation,but they whinge when there are power outages.
If they don't like living under a powerline,they should get jobs and move somewhere better

Yah I know, but it's subject to commercial goals and drivers, and it would take a "Cunliffe Event", a la Telecom to get them to change.

[James Deuce]

Gotta disagree there - the message they want to send and the truth are 2 different things. They bailed out the BNZ, they bailed out Air NZ.

This is effectively Power NZ...

Err, yeah, that was my point - sarcasm man, sarcasm

[ManDownUnder]

Err, yeah, that was my point - sarcasm man, sarcasm

To early for me, not enough caffeine err... looking for excuses...!

Top man

[Squeak the Rat]

NZ$1,600,000,000 for Working For Families next year.

Lets encourage more people to have kids and stretch our infrastructure further.

[oldrider]

I find this amazing.
Auckland has an electrical outage and everyone cries "Nationalise".
The part of the power system that failed "is" nationalised! (Government owned)
So how in the hell will "Nationalising" a government owned enterprise fix the problem?
Since "deregulation" of the power system in NZ the government has a larger % of it under their control than they had before!
There lies the problem.
Because of deregulation the government is making a mint out of the re-organised SOE structures. They wont change anything.
Wake up NZ you are being fed on this subject. John.

[Paul in NZ]

I think it's the way the SOE's are run John. They are expected to 'make a profit' and be commercial yet the market is not actually open.. So you get all these nitwits that think they are free enterprise types stuffing things up.

No matter who runs it, there WILL be outages, it's technology and technology breaks sometimes.. hell, even my Starlet needs a tune up once a decade or so...

I was kinda lookin at a bigger picture.... and probably wrong.. again......

[sAsLEX]

It was funny to see that some intersections would give no rights to certain people trying to get through if people followed the give way rules! Where by a steady stream of traffic held the give way rule in its power for the 5 mins I watched!

[placidfemme]

What a useless country. Widdle bit of bad wedder and the whole Auckland CBD down. On a positive note, this goes to show how fucking useless this council is. Without traffic lights, the commute to work was 10 times faster. Proof that they are all morons and should commit mass suicide. The city just doesn't need them.

If this offends anybody, fuck off, it's my birthday.

lol & happy birthday (even though its late)

Traffic in Parnell (Stanley Street) was flowing smoothley... no lights meant to waiting, saw a few dodgy moments, but nothing that would be considered a "close call". Only bad part is being a pedestrian trying to cross those roads lol

[Finn]

I find this amazing.
Auckland has an electrical outage and everyone cries "Nationalise".
The part of the power system that failed "is" nationalised! (Government owned)
So how in the hell will "Nationalising" a government owned enterprise fix the problem?
Since "deregulation" of the power system in NZ the government has a larger % of it under their control than they had before!
There lies the problem.
Because of deregulation the government is making a mint out of the re-organised SOE structures. They wont change anything.
Wake up NZ you are being fed on this subject. John.

Well said that man! I'd also like to point out that Auckland contributed most of the now $7 - 8 billion dollars in tax surplus that will be wasted on utter bullshit and finally, just before the election they will make all sorts of promises to catch more votes.

It's time to say enough is enough.

[Squeak the Rat]

$1,600,000,000. Working for Families.