Here’s Germany’s solution to saving energy and reducing its carbon foortprint- make electricity affordable only to a few rich people! German online DIE WELT daily has an article titled: Hundreds Of Thousands Have Had Their Power Turned Off.
Germany’s power and gas has become so expensive thanks to its Renewable Energy Feed-in Act that it is now an unaffordable commodity for many among the poor.
Under the feed-in act, power companies are forced to buy up the expensive renewable energy from producers and pay them exorbitant tariffs. This has driven Germany’s electricity prices up and has made them among the most expensive in the world. So much so, that many can no longer pay for it.
According to DIE WELT:
Because of unpaid electricity bills, an estimated 600, 000 households in Germany had their power cut off in 2010, according to the Consumer Agency of North Rhine Westphalia in Düsseldorf. […] Price increases of about 15% for electricity and gas over the past 2 years have made energy an unaffordable commodity for many households.” said Chairman Klaus Müller. The increasing energy poverty is alarming.”
DIE WELT also writes that power companies had to send out millions of payment reminders. Many of these consumers, who were in arrears, paid their bills, but a portion were unable to do so.
Well, it’s not like 600,000 households live permanently without ‘leccy; most of them scramble to make ends meet and the blackout lasts only a short time for those. Once I was threatened with a blackout myself – the power provider sent me a letter telling me I hadn’t paid and gave me an ultimatum. I phoned them and insisted that I had paid and could prove it with my bank receipts. A few days later they found the money; an operator hat entered my customer number wrongly or something in their system. They’re pretty ruthless and start to threaten customers immediately.
Also, some people do what we call “Volksstrom” (People’s Power)… fudging the wiring themselves to get around the meter. That’s one reason power providers want to introduce smart meters. Smart meters allow them to filter usage profiles for leeches, as the meters can be queried in realtime and remotely.
Even in energy-rich Australia, electricity prices are sky-rocketing. And are set to rise again unless there’s a *change* of government to repeal the world’s biggest carbon tax which comes into effect on the 1st of July.
On fuel-costs alone, electricity from the grid is at about 60% of the fuel cost for small-scale (<30kVA) diesel generation (conservatively at 3kWh/litre). A "naked" 5kVA diesel generator costs about $1600 here. An enclosed one (noise reduced) another $600 or so. My peak-month electricity consumption would burn up a 200-litre drum of off-road diesel.
Australian suburbia may sound very different after July.
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