‘Powersaver’ advertisements to run this Sunday

Media release
12 June 2008

‘Powersaver’ advertisements to run this Sunday

The Winter Power Group advised today that television advertisements encouraging consumers to become ‘powersavers’ will begin this Sunday 15 June, along with a powersavers website www.powersavers.co.nz.

The advertisements are based around New Zealanders becoming ‘power savers’ and provides practical and simple steps that consumers can undertake to help reduce electricity usage this winter. The advertisements have been planned and paid for by the five largest electricity retailers and generators.

Winter Power Group convenor and Transpower Chief Executive Patrick Strange said that the advertisements are the next step in a programme of work being undertaken by the electricity industry to meet demand this winter.

“Although we had a little bit of rain last week into the Manapouri catchment, which is one of the key catchment areas going into winter, we still need more rain. The weather forecast for the next three days looks promising in the South Island with some very heavy falls possible in the key catchments. However, we must continue planning for the ‘what ifs’ until we are completely confident that we are past the risk of any shortages. This is why it is now an appropriate time to step up our encouragement to business and residential customers to help us manage the situation and cut back where they can."

“Although it is difficult to measure actual power savings, we believe we are already seeing savings of up to 2%. We expect to see this increase under this programme if all New Zealanders play their part in comfortably reducing their power use - switching off lights or appliances that they aren’t using, choosing an alternative activity which uses less electricity or taking shorter showers.

“It’s important to be clear that we are encouraging people to make what savings they can without compromising their comfort or quality of life. We do not want people to turn off heaters and go cold under any circumstances.

“Large commercial customers across the country have reduced their electricity use and this will contribute to the expected savings."

“Within the next week we will begin to publish new demand figures broken down by region showing the savings being made. We will continue to keep people informed via the Powersavers website www.powersavers.co.nz, which replaces the recently launched Winter Power Watch website."

“The industry is appreciative of the significant support received by New Zealand already which is reflected in the savings to date."

ENDS

© Scoop Media