Power prices on Rakiura are already high, with the average user estimated to pay three times as much as those on the mainland. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Stewart Islanders are facing power price hikes of more than a thousand dollars per year.
The grid on Rakiura is entirely dependent on diesel generation and as a result, power unit prices will increase 25 percent next month from 65 cents to 81 cents.
Fixed charges are also increasing.
Power prices on the island are already high, with the average user estimated to pay three times as much as those on the mainland.
Rakiura resident Pip Leask said the rise was insane.
"That was a bit of a shock. It's a large number - 25 percent. And one which is not really possible to suck up," she said.
It would mean the average user was facing an increase of more than $1100 dollars per year to their power bill.
Leask, whose daughter was a fifth generation Stewart Islander, said she was facing the prospect of having to leave to be able to afford to live.
"I'm a single mum living here really dedicated to try to keep it possible for my daughter and I to stay here and you just look at it and go - How much more can we absorb?"
She did not think she was alone in weighing up her options.
The price hike would come into effect from 20 July, in the midst of winter, when power usage was higher and visitor numbers were down.
"It's just a kick in the guts, isn't it. I feel like you wouldn't expect anything more but it's the toughest time of year to have brought this in. It just adds insult to injury," Leask said.
Rakiura ward Southland councillor Jon Spraggon said the problem was Rakiura's power grid was entirely dependent on diesel-generation.
"With the cost and escalation in the price of diesel, it was either increase the power price to a reasonable level - and by reasonable I mean where we're recouping the costs - or go broke," he said.
Hiking power prices was not a decision taken lightly, but the community board's hand had been forced, Spraggon said.
"Part of the blame for this is the previous community board, of which I was part of, but they refused to do price increases and we had a couple of people on it that said 'Oh no, the government will bail it out'. Well the government won't bail it out and responsibly we had to increase the power."
He agreed running the grid of one of Aotearoa's tourism jewels entirely off diesel made a nonsense of the country's clean-green image.
But Spraggon believed successive governments deserved the blame for not securing a renewable source of energy for the island.
"It's not something we're happy with either.
"This has been going on for years and we would've been on to a green source of energy years ago if we could have afforded it."
In 2019, Rakiura secured more than $3 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for the installation of two wind turbines.
However, the project fell over when a site could not be secured and the funding was never used.
In this year's budget $300,000 was made available for an investigation into a renewable energy source for Rakiura.
Minister of Energy Megan Woods declined to be interviewed.
A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokesperson said officials were supporting residents to find a preferred option for a renewable energy project.
There would be more information in the coming months as community collaboration begins, the spokesperson said.
