General diagrom of energy storage
According to the coalition arrangement and the subsequent agreement contracted between the Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni and the Israeli Minister of Energy, Yisrael Katz, the government, in its weekly meeting, approved this past Sunday a national storage program to store energy during slack times and release it during peak usage. An incidental benefit is that this will also include providing kosher electricity for chareidi neighborhoods on Shabbos, instead of through the generators being used today. This is without any need to charge more for electric supply to the general public, and in fact, saving a lot of money.
The city of Bnei Brak will be the first pilot project for the whole country for providing stored energy. In a professional meeting which took place in the office of the Minister of Energy, Yisrael Katz together the Chairman of the Finance Committee, MK Rabbi Gafni; the director of the Energy Ministry; the Director of the Electric Company Meir Speigler, and Director of the Bnei Brak municipality, Rabbi Shmuel Litov, it was agreed that Bnei Brak would be the pioneer pilot program. In particular in a new neighborhood located in northern Bnei Brak where a large area would be designated for erecting a special structure provided by the Electric Company store energy.
Predictably, there was a media frenzy accusing the chareidim of raising prices for everyone.
The authorization is an answer to baseless provocation in the media claiming that the project is due to pressure from chareidi representation. At the end of last week, with the presentation of the program, several articles were publicized in the media with stark criticism coming from the Opposition which labeled this process as bowing to chareidim at the expense of the general public.
Rabbi Gafni and Energy Minister Katz, clarified that the new program to provide kosher electricity for Shabbos, does not harm the average Israeli citizen in the least, but is precisely geared to improve supply for one and all, and any other claim on the subject is baseless incitement.
Rabbi Gafni said, "The program of storing energy on a national basis during low usage times in order to release it later and provide it during peak usage is an excellent initiative, beginning as a pilot plan which will spread to the entire country. It is supported and promoted by all professionally relevant bodies, at no additional cost. In fact, it will lower the prices and will dramatically decrease air pollution. Whoever says otherwise is completely uninformed and totally ignorant on the subject."
Minister Yisrael Katz added that "those opposed to kosher electricity are changing their claims like one changes socks. They first claimed that it would increase the cost of electricity for the general public, that it would harm competition and that the cost of erecting the project would be at the public expense. Outright lies! Such apparatus is profitable and will eventually be sold to the private sector as well."
Factions from the Energy Ministry also said that the claim that electricity supply will be at public expense is false, and whoever claims so has not read the decision which explicitly determines that it will not result in a cost rise nor in a needed subsidy. Kosher electricity cannot and will not be at the expense of the general public.
These same bodies explained that the apparatus is based on a profitable model which creates considerable profits sufficient for Shabbos needs at no added cost to other consumers. Several companies are interested in investing in this project.
These groups added that the claim that the electric company will prevent competition is stupid. The initial plan is limited only to the pilot project and obligates the company to sell the structure within three years. Thus, according to the agreement, the electric company will not play a role on the market and competition will remain open and free.
"The storage supply constructions are not primarily designed to provide kosher electricity. Rather, they profess to supply an economic and commercial power need. They are one of the 'greenest' solutions in the production of electric power. Kosher electricity only utilizes this technology without impairing it or creating additional cost to the economy," they explained.
In the course of the government meeting dealing with this subject, deputy minister Rabbi Uri Maklev explained that the chareidi Authority which he heads, has been accompanying these developments for many months and that it involves energy-storing apparatus which are very profitable for an economy interested in them which has also been proven to reduce air pollution. Anything said against this is fake and false, attempts of incitement against the chareidi public.
In the course of the meeting, Rabbi Maklev added, "The plan for storing electric power on a national basis which has presently been approved is an economic one which the chareidi authority has needed ever since its inception, due to its importance and scope for the benefit of the entire public in general, and for the chareidi sector in particular. This program includes several advantages, as we have presented, including that of security, economy, environment, including that of lowering the cost of living. This is not a private endeavor but involves the local government councils supporting it. It is being promoted thanks to the efforts of Energy Minister Yisrael Katz, together with the Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, who stand behind it."
Interior Committee Chairman MK Rabbi Yaakov Asher welcomed the certification of the pronouncement and said that it is "a blessed decision symbolizing how we can engender efficient cooperation which can contribute to the economy of power production, equally for environmental benefit and for the shomrei Shabbos consumers. My colleagues and I from Degel HaTorah have for many years actively promoted this apparatus, step by step, via government offices and Knesset committees, with the request now being brought to fruition together with the present coalition agreement. I heartily commend the Degel HaTorah chairman, Rabbi Gafni, for having led this to its conclusion of government certification. I also praise Minister Yisrael Katz and the Electric Company CEO, Meir Speigler, for their fine efforts in bringing it to a government decision without fear."
