新西兰英语 222 Electricity changes

　　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

1 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

2 meridian   

adj.子午线的；全盛期的

参考例句：

• All places on the same meridian have the same longitude.在同一子午线上的地方都有相同的经度。
• He is now at the meridian of his intellectual power.他现在正值智力全盛期。