Latest / Best of Business / Huia Burt: Electric Kiwi CEO on the big four power gentailers facing new regulations

Transcript

Huia Burt: Electric Kiwi CEO on the big four power gentailers facing new regulations · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks that'd be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio together dol A new.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Rules announced today to help competition in the electricity market.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: The Electricity Authority is forcing gent tailors to give the
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: same deals to smaller retailers that compete with them as
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: they give to their own retail arms. Hue Albert is
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Electric key We CEO and with us HI, who are
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: good evening here. Does this make a difference do you think?
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Look, these rules are a win and that they acknowledge
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: that gent tailors are exercising market power and that that's
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: hurting kere we consumers, so they put an obligation on
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: gen tailors to do better and play there. So it's
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: a start, but the problem remains that we're asking those
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: gentailors to act in a way that is an opposition
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: to their commercial incentives, and those are keep supply tight,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: keep competition out, and keep prices high because that's what
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: maximizes their profits. So these definitely they're a start, but
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: really it's the market structure that is good for gentile
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: as shareholders and it's not good for struggling care with
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: households and businesses.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: So basically who what you're saying is the problem is
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: actually at the wholesale level, So what they're charging in
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: wholesale rates is primarily the problem, not what's going on
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: at the retail level.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Yet absolutely, so this is not going to affect it.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: This will help with retail competition, absolutely, But what we
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: really need to see is a massive increase in the
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: supply of energy. That is the thing that is going
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: to bring affordability and competitiveness to New Zealand's electricity prices.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Would you.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Well, we remain convinced that the only way to really
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: drive a massive increase in supply is to operationally separate
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: these companies and that means one legal owner, two operating businesses.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: One works in the generation side, one works from the
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: retail side. There's no change for shareholders. The businesses just
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: have to compete barely and squarely with every other, particularly
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: those independent generators who want to come in and they
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: want to build new renewable generation. That is going to
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: bring prices down for kiwiks.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: All right, Huiah, thanks very much, appreciate it. Who we
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: are built Electric Key we CEO.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks at b listen live on
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio