Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / John Harbord: Major Electricity Users' Group Chair says the rising electricity costs will impact industrial manufacturers more significantly

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John Harbord: Major Electricity Users' Group Chair says the rising electricity costs will impact industrial manufacturers more significantly · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Don't look at your power bills for the next few
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: years people, they're going to get a bit ugly. It's
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: because the Commerce Commission has given permission to Transpower and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the local lines companies to up their charges. They're doing
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: this because they need to upgrade the network is weather
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: issues coming, more of us are using evs and not
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: enough gas, et cetera, putting more pressure on the network.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: John John Harvard is the Major Electricity Users Group chairing,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is with us this morning. John, Good morning, Good morning.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: What impact will this, if any, have on business?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Look, I think it's important to note that the impact
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: on certainly large sort of industrial manufacturers will be more
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: significant than what's going to impact households. And that's because
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: those large businesses don't buy their electricity from retailers, so
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the percentage of their bill that comes from transmission and
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: distribution is higher. So what we're going to see is
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: those large employers, many of whom are already struggling their
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: electricity bills are going to go up considerably more than
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: about the five percent increase that households are looking at.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: What percent are we talking, Well.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: It's going to vary by businesses, so you get some
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: very large users like the Alu medium smelter at TY
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: who buy their electricity direct from the national grid. Others
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: will be going through their lines company, So it varies
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: by the businesses.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: What's the max.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Ah, Well, some of them by oh, I think you're
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: looking at well over fifty percent of their bills for transmission,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: transmission and distribution year.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: And they'll be going up by do you know sort
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: of a range.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: It's very hard to say. The Commission very consciously didn't
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: provide any estimates, and that's just because of the variability
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: of the nature of the businesses we're.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Talking about, right, Okay, do you think it's going to
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: be enough significant enough to put some of them out
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of business?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: We have seen that in the last couple of months
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: with spot prices.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Not in and of itself, but it's important to note
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: and this applies to households as well. It is what
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the Commission has approved is just increases in transmission and distribution.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So generators, for instance, are planning to spend billions of
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: dollars on new generation, which we need, so that price
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: impact will come through as well, and also any increases
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: that electricity retailers make, so household bills are going to
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: go up by more than the ten dollars a month
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: that the Commission's flag.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, interesting, John, thank you very much for that.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, John Harvard, Major Electricity Users Group there
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: saying that as a percentage, big businesses, big news is
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: will pay more because they pay more for the transmission
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: as a percentage of their outgoings. Just so that you know,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: for consumers, it's approximately ten dollars a month for one
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty dollars annually for the first year, and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: then it is five dollars a month or fifty five
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: dollars annually for it for the year, every every for
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the next four years, I should say, and that would
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: bring your title to around three hundred and forty dollars
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: per year extra on your power bills within five years.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: For more from Early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:05
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• 3:08
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