Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / John Harbord: Major Electricity Users' Group Chair on Genesis Energy announcing a $400m capital raise

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John Harbord: Major Electricity Users' Group Chair on Genesis Energy announcing a $400m capital raise · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Electricity demand is going to increase in this country by
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: twenty five percent over the next ten years. EVS, data centers,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: commercial industrial uses, they will lead the charge. It's part
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of the reason that Genesis is doing this four hundred
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: million dollar equity raise to fast track solar and batteries
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to smooth out Huntley's supply during dry years. John Harbord
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: is the Major Electricity Users Group chair and joins us
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hi John, good morning.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: So you represent the likes of Fonterra Woolies and he's
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in and still big users. How worried are they about
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the security of electricity in this country?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Look, security of electricity is pretty critical. When you run
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a manufacturing business and you need to be operating twenty
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: four to seven, you need to know that the electricity
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: is going to be there every minute of every day.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: What's driving the increase in their demand? Are they expanding
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: or is it decarbonizational both.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: It's an element of both. The other thing that's driving
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: electrification is obviously lack of domestic gas. So people who
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: are who can are trying to move away from using gas,
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  Speaker 2: and one of the most attractive options obviously is electricity.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Does this announcement ease their minds.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Certainly, it's welcome. From a security of supply perspective. The
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: one thing that Genesis is leaning into very heavily is
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: dispatchable firming capacity, which is just a fancy way of
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: saying an ability to store electricity and then put it
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: into the system when you know, when it's we don't
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  Speaker 2: have enough water in the hydro lakes and the sun
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  Speaker 2: and the wind aren't cooperating, and that's the most important
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  Speaker 2: electricity for the system. You know, that backup supply that's
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: there whenever you need it. So look, I think from
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that perspective it's a really really good thing. It doesn't
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: do much of the short term for affordability issues, but
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: that's a whole other issue.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned that. I've found it an interesting yesterday.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Everyone's focusing on the solar but it's more of the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: big battery at Huntley that will smooth the dry years
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that's more important here, surely.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's from our perspective, that's really really critical. But
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the solar aspect is really important as well. Now it
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: has to be put in the context that our other
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: large generators are also planning to build a lot of solar,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: and the theory is that if you build a lot
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: of solar, you generate a lot more electricity during summer,
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  Speaker 2: which is when solar electricity obviously is more effective. But
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  Speaker 2: what that means is the hydrogenerators keep more of the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: water in the lakes because they don't need to use it,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: and then that's available during winter when we're often short.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Gotcha, John, Appreciate your time, John, Harvard, Major Electricity Users
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Group cheer welcoming that announcement yesterday. For more from earlier
• 2:45
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