KEY POINTS:
The Green Party wants an electricity pricing scheme set up so families on tight budgets can afford basic power needs.
Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said she would ask the Government to study progressive pricing.
Her call follows the death of Folole Muliaga, who died last week hours after the electricity to her home and her oxygen machine was cut off.
The Cabinet is to discuss today whether rules governing electricity retailers need to be toughened.
Ms Fitzsimons said a progressive pricing scheme would give every household a basic block of power units at a low cost each month.
Progressively higher prices could be charged for subsequent blocks of units.
She said this would provide cheaper power to a "basic needs" level, but would still allow power companies to make money by charging more for households that used more than the initial block.
A Ministry of Economic Development study last year rejected progressive pricing as an option for reducing prices, despite accepting that such a plan would benefit residential users and would not result in a surge in demand for electricity, unlike other price-cutting options.
It said fixed pricing was "not compatible with competitive market arrangements", would be complex and hard to administer, and would affect some power companies more than others.
Ms Fitzsimons said the tragedy of Mrs Muliaga's death showed it was time for a reassessment.
"This is a way of making sure households can afford the energy they need to cover their basic needs, but pay more for luxuries or wastage.
"So if you're using electricity to heat spa pools or have an enormous house with every room heated, or leave lights on all night, then you pay a higher price for that power."
Progressive pricing would help people on budgets, such as pensioners, because they could better manage their power use, reducing it when nearing the limit.
Ms Fitzsimons floated the idea during the Greens' annual conference in Nelson at the weekend.
She said studies showed energy use was not greatly affected by the number of people in a house.
"It does go up a bit, but not all that much. A fridge costs as much to run, it costs as much to heat a room with six people in it as with one person."
She said the main cost increase for a large household was in water heating, which could be mitigated by measures such as having children share bath water.
It was impossible to differentiate between households and provide more cheap power for one than another.
Progressive pricing would also benefit the environment by acting as an incentive to cut down on power use, helping to reduce the use of coal-generated power, Ms Fitzsimons said.
Fellow Green MP Sue Bradford said power companies should be required to act socially responsibly.
It should be illegal for them to cut essential services such as power and water except in extreme circumstances.
