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NZ, the South Pacific South Africa?

I have a friend who lives in South Africa.

Every Wednesday, he runs a livestream on YouTube in which various figureheads from within the drone industry get together and discuss the events of the week. This regular stream has been "a thing" for quite a few years now but recently, something has changed.

These days, the guy in South Africa often appears to be sitting in the dark, with the only illumination coming from a candle or the screen of the smartphone he has to use in order to connect to the internet.

The lights and desktop computer in his house no longer function.

That's because he has no electricity.

In fact, most of South Africa has no electricity so he is not alone, sitting in the dark.

This video posted to YouTube by the BBC explains exactly what's going on.

My friend tells me that another cause of the regular power blackouts is the fact that while the lines are not energised, groups of thieves regularly steal the copper from which those lines are made. When the grid is re-activated, all those downstream of the affected lines remain blacked out.

I don't think I could live in a country where key parts of essential infrastructure are subject to such lawlessness and corruption to the extent that electricity becomes an occasional luxury, rather than an essential service.

However, if New Zealand doesn't get its finger out of its backside when it comes to energy planning, we could very well find ourselves facing regular blackouts (again) and faced with a demand that exceeds supply.

I've written on this subject a number of times, but it never hurts to raise the issue again when new facts come to light.

This is mnore evidence that the government is not doing a very good job. In fact, ever since Max Bradford "deregulated" the electricity industry we've been sliding down a slippery slope towards energy insufficiency.

In regards to Rio Tinto, it seems that they constantly cry "poor" and keep demanding super-discounted power -- threatening to withdraw from the country if those demands aren't met.

How the hell does a $122 million dollar profit make you "poor" and it now becomes clearly apparent that a sizeable chunk of that $122 million is actually coming straight out of NZ taxpayers' pockets in the form of heavily subsidised electricity for the smelter.

It's not the responsibility of NZ's poorest and most disadvantaged to prop up a highly profitable international corporation like this and any government that perpetuates this level of (dare I say it?) "corruption" ought to be summarily dismissed from office.

Once again I point out that for the past few winters we've either had power outages or threats of outages due to limited available supply at times of peak demand -- we just don't have enough reserve capacity in the system right now. How will we manage to cope as our vehicle fleet transitions from ICE to EV without adding a significant amount of extra capacity?

To be honest, I think it's time to front up to Rio Tinto and say "you pay what the power is worth or sling your hook", especially when you look at the environmental impact this smelter is creating. The cleanup of such messes will likely also become a burden to taxpayers -- while the company laughs all the way to the bank.

Sure, there are jobs at stake but I would wager that the environment and energy security of the nation is a far more important issue.

Surely *now* is the time to make sure that we don't become another South Africa, where feeble-minded politicians pour millions of dollars into the pockets of huge corporations in a way that hugely disadvantages those who those politicians were elected to serve.

What do readers think?

Given the rate at which the transition from ICE to EV is already happening and given the precariously small amount of reserve capacity we currently have in our power industry, have we already left things too late?

Carpe Diem folks!

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