新西兰英语 222 Electricity changes

（单词翻译）

　　The government plans to change some of our electricity companies. Two of the North Island electricity companies – Genesis and Mighty¹ River – will have some South Island power stations and the South Island power company, Meridian², will get a North Island power station.
The idea is to have more competition between companies. Sometimes competition can bring prices down. The customer will have more choice of companies to buy electricity from. Power prices have increased 70% in the last 10 years while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has gone up only 28% in the same time. Listen to Inflation October 22nd 2008
for more information about the CPI.
The other big change is because of the problem when our electricity supply breaks down. Auckland has had problems in the last few years. Most of our electricity comes from hydro-electric power, from rivers and lakes. When there is not much rain, sometimes there is not enough water in the lakes to generate electricity. If the electricity supply breaks down, the company will have to pay the customer.
Listen also to Electricity Problems in Auckland