Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / John Harbord: Major Electricity Users' Group Chair on the possibility of using more water from hydro lakes to generate power

Transcript

John Harbord: Major Electricity Users' Group Chair on the possibility of using more water from hydro lakes to generate power · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: At least two hundred and thirty jobs are on the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: line in one region. Our key we exporters competitiveness is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: under threat and the cost of lots of stuff that
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: we buy and sell will have to go up. Why
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: or because of our power shortage? Fletcher Building yesterday the
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  Speaker 1: latest company admitting its power bill is up three million
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: dollars a month in just the last few years. Big manufacturers,
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  Speaker 1: several of them now are either pausing or shutting operations altogether.
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  Speaker 1: But today Transpower, in just the next few hours, is
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  Speaker 1: going to make a big call, excuse me, on whether
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  Speaker 1: generators can dip into what is essentially emergency water from
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  Speaker 1: hydro lakes to try and fight back against this shortage.
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  Speaker 1: John Harvard is with the Major Electricity Users Group, has
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  Speaker 1: to share there. John, good morning, Good morning. Do you
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  Speaker 1: think Transpower will will do this today?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I'd be surprised if they don't. As you said,
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  Speaker 2: we have this water set aside for emergencies, and I
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  Speaker 2: don't think there's any doubt that the crisis we're in
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  Speaker 2: with large employees shutting down operations and hundreds of people
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  Speaker 2: losing their jobs, as anything but a critical issue for
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  Speaker 2: our communities.
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  Speaker 1: How haven't we pulled this lever already. I'm surprised to
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  Speaker 1: hear there is water that we could take.
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  Speaker 2: Well. I mean, we do keep it in reserve for emergencies,
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  Speaker 2: But I do think there is a very legitimate question
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  Speaker 2: around why have we not acted sooner? You know, why
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  Speaker 2: have we not put in place sort of as a
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  Speaker 2: program of conservation to just make sure people are using
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  Speaker 2: the electricity they need, but that they're not necessarily using
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  Speaker 2: electricity that they could do without, just to help us
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  Speaker 2: through this period. Because if transpower does tap into the
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  Speaker 2: sort of emergency reserve, it's important to realize that this
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  Speaker 2: is not going to solve the problem. It's going to
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  Speaker 2: provide a bit of temporary relief, but the issues are
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  Speaker 2: still going to be there.
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  Speaker 1: Some lakes have already reached their resource consent limits. Should
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  Speaker 1: we give them a pass to go lower? And what
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  Speaker 1: does it actually? What does it do? What is the
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  Speaker 1: implication of going lower?
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  Speaker 2: Look, the question about how sort of deep into the
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  Speaker 2: hydro lakes we go is a very technical one, so
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  Speaker 2: I don't think I'd get into that. But I think
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  Speaker 2: the critical, a critical issue for us to remember is
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  Speaker 2: that unless we get a lot of rain between now
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  Speaker 2: and the end of this year, then potentially we're setting
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  Speaker 2: our salves up for or we're going to experience the
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  Speaker 2: same situation we're in now we'll experience next year because
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  Speaker 2: the lakes will still be a bit too low next
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  Speaker 2: year and we're unlikely to find a lot of gas
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  Speaker 2: in the next sort of six to twelve months to
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  Speaker 2: sort of bridge the energy that we don't have.
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  Speaker 1: Give us a sense, John, how critical is this morning's
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  Speaker 1: decision from Transpower, Like, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think it's really important, and it sits alongside the decision
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  Speaker 2: of Method X to cease their production to free up
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  Speaker 2: the electricity that they use and to provide the gas
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  Speaker 2: that they normally use to actually help us with gas
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  Speaker 2: fired generation. And it also sits alongside the very significant
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  Speaker 2: reduction and production at the t y point and your
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  Speaker 2: minium smelter. So I think the three things need to
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  Speaker 2: be seen together because they all free up electricity for
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  Speaker 2: other people to use or help provide generation for other
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  Speaker 2: people to use. But they are all sort of short
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  Speaker 2: term fixes to get us through sort of the next
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  Speaker 2: few months, and they're all very important, but they don't
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  Speaker 2: solve the underlying issue or problem that we have.
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  Speaker 1: John, Thanks so much for your time this morning. John Harbor,
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  Speaker 1: the Major Electricity Users Group chair, just repeating that at
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  Speaker 1: eight point thirty this morning they Transpower told producer Leo
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  Speaker 1: yesterday they will announce their decision on whether they can
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  Speaker 1: tap into those emergency reserves and our hydro lakes to
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  Speaker 1: try and alleviate some of the problems that we're seeing.
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• 3:45
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