Age Concern, an advocacy group for the elderly, is attempting to highlight the issue of ‘energy poverty’ before the (southern hemisphere) winter brings a power crisis. Energy poverty is defined as households having to use more than 10 percent of their income to maintain healthy temperatures, the concept is used widely in the United Kingdom to identify and alleviate hardship.

If households there are using more than 10 percent of their income to maintain the minimum safe temperatures set by the World Health Organization, additional government assistance is provided. the UK government spends around eight times more per capita than the New Zealand government retro-fitting insulation and putting efficient heating appliances into cold homes.

“Cold homes are killing people.” said Age Concern president Liz Baxendine in a press release. “Older people, along with families with young children, are most likely to need help with energy bills: they have the highest needs and the lowest incomes.” The government collects $1 billion every year in dividends from public power companies and taxes paid by the industry. The Domestic Energy Users network (DEUN) says that means there’s plenty of householders’ money to recycle into energy efficiency.

The private power company Contact energy has lost at least 6000 customers, (with some reports and high as 10000) after rising its prices by 10% and increasing executive pay. Most of those customers are in the colder South Island. Bill Ellicott, a retired Dunedin man, has switched power companies after 30 years of power supply from Contact.

According to the Otago Daily Times, “He felt the loyalty between vendor and customer had been strained beyond breaking point due to events of the past months.” Contact has offered discount incentives to Elliott and other former customers, showing the increased prices were hardly necessary.