Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the need to enforce any potential changes to the energy sector

Transcript

Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the need to enforce any potential changes to the energy sector · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Energy Competition Task Force is making moves to bring
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: down the power bills, and good on them, because we
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: all want that. It is recommended that the Electricity Authority
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: crack down on gen tailors who neglect to be fair
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and competitive. And now the authority is seeking feedback on
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the proposed approach, and we've got the CEO of Rewiring
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: ALT role with us, Mike Casey, Good morning.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: To you, given morning, Andrew, there you go, very good.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: So what would the monitoring companies actually do and how
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: would this make our power bills smaller?
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Well, this is pretty exciting because one of the big
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: things that the independent retails are the ones that don't
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: generate electricity have been sort of talking about for a
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: long time, is it hadn't been particularly their playing field.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: So the idea behind this change is essentially that the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: large into town with the likes of Contact Angie, Meridian,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Mercury and so they are going to have to sell
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: power to the independent generators at the same price they
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: sell it to themselves. And that's just pretty exciting. There's
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: a lot of work that needs to be done to
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: make sure that this actually does have happen and happens
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: effectively and one thing that we're sort of calling for
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: it rewiring. Else said, oh, is really trying to figure
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: out how to make sure that this is mandatory rather
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: than just sort of policing it maybe after the fact.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, So the question is if they do manage by monitoring,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: which is a bit of scowling, they manage to get
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: these gent tailors, the big four, you know, who have
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: both sides of the equation, If they do manage to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: offer this stuff to Independence, will those generators bump up
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the price to keep the same level of profits that
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: they're getting at them at the same time, so will
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: we actually get a lower price?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: That is potentially an issue, but I think on the
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: other side of it, it's quite exciting. We've seen most
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: of the innovation around pricing for consumers. Most of the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: innovative products coming out, such as things like free hour
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: of power, things like that, are coming from the Independence,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: So it being a playing field, I am very, very
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: optimistic that this will cause a downward pressure on power prices,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: more innovation in the space, which is ultimately best for
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the customer. That is something the regulator is going to
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: have to make sure. Right at the end of the day,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: there is the theory that it can put down with
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: pressure on prices, but we have seen the path that
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: that is not necessarily always the case.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: In an ideal world. Would you prefer that generators are
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: absolutely separated from retailers.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I think that's the big drastic step that the government
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: is going to have to be looking at to see
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: whether that is the ultimate outcome. This is kind of
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: a bit of a lower touch step that might resolve
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: some of the issues and do it far, far faster.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: And I think the thing that we're seeing now for
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the customers of New Zealand, things are going to be
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: done really quickly because power builds keep rising in this
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: country and they don't need to be.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And part of the reason they keep rising is that
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: we keep on running out of power because it keeps
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: on being dry and everything is renewable. Eighty five percent
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of our power is renewable. So you know, you got
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: your finger on the pulse. Are we going to have
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: another power crisis this winter?
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean I keep my finger on the pulse
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: a lot because i have a huge amount of soul
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: on my farm and I'm doing very well out of
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: that at the moment. Selling at the wholesale rate where
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the price of power is incredibly high. So I do
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: have my finger on the a lot in that regard.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: It isn't raining at the moment. I was just on
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: the shores of Lake Chippo a couple of days ago,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and it's looking very, very dry. What we do every
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: year is we sort of sit there and wait and
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: pray for rain. Sometimes it comes. In the case of
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: twenty to twenty four, it didn't. So you know, it's
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: all going to come down to the work of gods
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: at the moment, see how this energy industry copes with
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: the current shortage of water. It's not looking good at
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the moment. And so yes, anything that we can do
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: in the space to improve innovation and also roll out
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: alternative forms of generation like riftop solo on homes and
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: on farms is going to make a massive difference to
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: the outcome for customers.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: All Right, Mike Casey, thank you so much. Mike Casey
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: is the CEO of Rewiring ah Tier.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Right for more Familiarly edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:43
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• 3:46
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