Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Karen Boyes: Major Electricity Users' Group Executive Director talks expected energy sector reforms

Transcript

Karen Boyes: Major Electricity Users' Group Executive Director talks expected energy sector reforms · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So eight am will get the frontier report, We'll get
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the government's action plan. This is happening very soon. Industry
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: leaders calling for bold moves. Karen Boys's Major Electricity Users
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: group with us this morning. Karen, Good morning, Good morning, Ryan.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Have you had a look at the report yet? Have
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you give men given a copy?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: No? No, So, just like you and many others, I'm
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: sitting here waiting till eight o'clock deadline for it to
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: come out.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Are you are you holding your breath or are you
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: actually realistic that this is going to be more tweaks
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: than bold moves.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: It's really I mean, I'd like to be optimistic. In
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: hope they've listened to the calls from everybody. I said,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: the mood of the boardroom was pretty clear that, you know,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: energy is real concerns. So I hope they've been bold,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: but I think sadly I'm going to have to be
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: realistic about what they might choose to do.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: How do you feel about Alan.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: G It's yeah, I said it. We certainly helped with
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: bringing in fuel. I said, obviously we're running out of
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: domestic gas, and I said, any options to a domestically
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I said, we'll have time if we do discover it
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: and to bring it to market. Ler G does link
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: us to international markets, which means that the cost could
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: be quite high. So I said, it doesn't mean it's
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: the cheap option for the country. It just provides you
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: with I guess, more guaranteed supply.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: And what about the access to it? You know, who
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: would get access to it? What would the cost be?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Are those things that you've looked into that you're worried.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: About, you haven't looked at it in detail? I said.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: The big question will be is LERNG available for everybody?
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: And so that means the electricity generators as well as
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: users of guests directly, because I said, industrial users are
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: finding it increasingly hard to get gas at all. So
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I said, they'll be keen to understand could they access
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: it and what does the cost? Because that don't really
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: decide whether they can afford to use it or have
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: to try and transition or yet make the hard decisions
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: to perhaps stop business.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Can you paint a picture for us, Karen, how bad
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: will thinks get? You know, your major in it, electricity
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: users group, your big clients, your big members. What happens
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: if we don't sort this out?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I said, some of the businesses at the moment who
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: are struggling to get gas supplies will have to make
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: the hard decisions about whether they can convert over to electricity.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Best case, some of them can. I said, then we're
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: faced with a large demand coming to the electricity system,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: and we're going to be faced with having to build
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: a heat to build fast. The question is can we
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: get the network built out in advance of this, Can
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: we get the generation built, can we get it connected
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: to the system. There's going to be a lot of
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: pressure on the system, and I said, we're already facing
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: quih cost. So I said, you're going to see a
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: real risk a lot of businesses are going to have
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: to reduce production shutdowns. That is a real concern. There
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: are a number of businesses that who do have long
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: term contracts, so that there are a number who will
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: probably be able to wear whether or it out for
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: a while. Sort of question is how long? And the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: worst thing is we might miss opportunities like dat is
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: another either other technology and innovation that might want to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: come here that might decide not to. So I said,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: we're rest losing what we've got, and we're also resc
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: losing what might have come here.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Karen, appreciate your time this morning. Karen Boys Major Electricity
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Users Group.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:27
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• 3:28
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• 3:31
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