“Turn off the lights and the water boiler, then it costs to the pocket.” Greece’ Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas needed almost half a year of soaring electricity prices to come up with this genius proposal to the Greeks who are puzzled about their power bills and have no idea how to avoid being sitting in the dark if they fail to pay their energy bills.
Speaking to Ant1 TV on Friday morning, Minister Skrekas said addressing the desperate public:
“The effort must be in saving electricity. We do not forget the water heater, we do not even leave one light on. All this eventually cost costs to the pocket.”
Referring to the government support to households and businesses, Skrekas brought as example his own electricity bill. “For the same 4-month consumption I paid 280 euros last year. This year I paid 340 euros, while it would be 410-420 Euros if there were no subsidies.”
He did not mention whether he has a solar powered water boiler like millions of Greeks, how often he turns on the water heater and what is the height of his salary.
Instead, he pointed out there is a very slight de-escalation in electricity prices and an even bigger one in the gas prices in the last few days.
He said that reduction in electricity is by 30%, but the natural gas price is four times more expensive than last year.
An immediate comment came by main opposition part, left-wing SYRIZA that said in a statement When Skrekas speaks he either lies or provokes citizens.”
“End September he was claiming that the increase in power bills would be 2-3 euros, but the bills came increased three to four times. Today, however, he managed to trigger outrage among the public. Instead of supporting measures, he proposed to citizens to not forget the water heater and the lights on.”
SYRIZA described the minister’s advice as “vulgar underestimation of citizens’ intelligence that shows the degree of the moral decline of the Mitsotakis’s government.”
It demanded intervention on pricing policy of electricity and decrease of the Special Fee on fuel and natural gas.
but last night we got to see a ‘DEH and the arts’ event on the teevee, and theyre still putting up more subsidized wind farms on every spare scrap of land they can get their hands on… they’re obviously not hurting for money when it’s us suckers paying!
There is nothing wrong with the principle of subsidising renewable sources of energy to encourage their uptake. The countries that eliminate fossil fuels from their energy mix the soonest are the ones who will do well when fossil fuels start to become harder to extract. That is getting close.
On shore wind farms in the UK now produce electricity at a lower cost than power stations running on oil or gas. That was achieved due to economies of scale by the mass construction of wind farms, which was enabled by subsidies when the cost of electricity from wind farms was higher. Now even the people who produce electricity from wind farms are saying that the subsidies should go. The best thing to do would be to switch the subsidy to offshore wind farms, which are still a bit more costly, in order to enable economies of scale there until they become more economic than fossil fuels. Then repeat the process for other methods.
More money needs to go into alternative energy storage mechanisms such as production of hydrogen from water by electrolysis. At the moment it is very high cost but could be made economic, again by economies of scale.
The sad thing here in Greece is that we have only have a choice of Dumb and Dumber to run the country. Get used to it, so just remember, turn off the hot water when you are not using it and turn off the lights when you are not in the room!
She’ll all be fine, the economy is growing!
Don’t iron your clothes, switch off your TV, computer, don’t use cell phones and best of all: switch off your fridge. Added advantage, you will eat less because the food will rotten, you will spend therefore less money on buying food that needs refrigeration and you will lose weight!
Inflation is the cause of many economic and social problems.
Perhaps the energy minister would like to suggest that food bills could be reduced by not eating as much !
Cut out cigarettes, coffee, beer, wine and ouzo, too. That will do it. Skrekas will lead as an example.