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Speaker 1: Back to the business of the power. The Hopeles state

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Speaker 1: this country finds itself in every winter. The Big four

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Speaker 1: gin Tailor's asm hopefully you're sure you are aware, have

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Speaker 1: cut a deal to stockpile coal at Huntly for the

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Speaker 1: next decade. Anyway, Mercury says we need more than that.

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Speaker 1: Stuart Hamilton is the chief executive of Mercury and is

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Speaker 1: whether it's very good morning to you, but moning Mike,

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Speaker 1: can the Big four do what you're doing with coal

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Speaker 1: and not draw the attention of some sort of regulator

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Speaker 1: like the ComCom.

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Speaker 2: I think there's a lot that's been done across the industry,

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Speaker 2: so I think for us, we know what we have

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Speaker 2: to do. We have to keep building renewables at pace

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Speaker 2: whilst we're also working out what we do when we

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Speaker 2: need to have the extra firming through dry years like

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Speaker 2: we've just experienced.

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Speaker 1: And so having ten years worth of coal tho and

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Speaker 1: having this plan, what does that tell us about the

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Speaker 1: renewable journey and who's on track and whether we're spending

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Speaker 1: it up and doing the enough.

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Speaker 2: It's definitely that the renewable journey can be a bit bumping,

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Speaker 2: as we've seen over the last couple of years with

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Speaker 2: a sudden and quite dramatic drop and gas applies in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand, we've realized that actually we need to keep

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Speaker 2: building at pace, but we also need to make sure

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Speaker 2: that we've got this firm in there so when the

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Speaker 2: winds stop blowing or the sun's not shining, we've got

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Speaker 2: the ability to be able to provide that powerful when you's.

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Speaker 1: Yond okay, So do you see the transition working? I mean,

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Speaker 1: how would you describe the state of the market right now,

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Speaker 1: right here, right now for these past couple of winters

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Speaker 1: and our lack of supply, our lack of renewables, all

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Speaker 1: of that, Where are we at?

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Speaker 2: I'd say there's definitely been a huge impact, right It's

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Speaker 2: been failed across the market, whether you're actually producing ultricty

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Speaker 2: or you're consuming it. And so there's no doubt there's

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Speaker 2: been an impact, and there's no doubt that we need

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Speaker 2: to be doing more than what we have been. And

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Speaker 2: so I think there's positive signs ahead of us. I

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Speaker 2: don't think we've been able to foresee the position we've

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Speaker 2: gotten into, particularly with the sudden drop off and gas.

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Speaker 2: A little while ago, we had this situation with TI

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Speaker 2: which is sort of a bit of an overhang. But

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Speaker 2: now if you look at the rate that things are growing,

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Speaker 2: getting pretty good and actually over the last of three

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Speaker 2: years we've built about the cab ten percent of New

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Speaker 2: Zeon's grid again, so there's a fair bit going on.

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Speaker 2: It's just ultimately, do we have the ability to be

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Speaker 2: able to build at the pace and firm it at

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Speaker 2: the pace that's going to write basically provide the confidence

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Speaker 2: for not only just households but also the small, medium

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Speaker 2: and large industrials in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Answer your own question, can we we can?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think at the moment, for example, Mercury

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Speaker 2: we're investing a one billion dollars into geothermal and wind.

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Speaker 2: That's great. Other gent tailors and actually a number of

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Speaker 2: independents are now involved building as well, which is fantastic.

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Speaker 2: As she becomes. If we have dry periods like we

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Speaker 2: have over the last couple of years, how do we

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Speaker 2: make sure we've got power in those times? That's why

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Speaker 2: the hunting deal is great, but we need more Geoffrmal

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Speaker 2: we believe got a massive role to play, and so

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Speaker 2: for example ourselves, we're putting a fair bit of effort

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Speaker 2: into that.

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Speaker 1: Also we had Jones on the program and the other

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Speaker 1: day about the geothermal thing. Is it easy, can it

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Speaker 1: be done? And wins it on stream? And what weight

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Speaker 1: do you place on geothermal in the mix?

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Speaker 2: Geo Thermal has a huge role to play. About twenty

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Speaker 2: percent of the New Zealand's power comes of geo thermal and

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Speaker 2: that's worldlie, it's easy. It's not that easy. There's a

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Speaker 2: fair amount of drilling that needs to take place. It's

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Speaker 2: quite a lot of technical know how that needs to

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Speaker 2: be used. But New Zealand's world leading in that space.

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Speaker 2: We've got projects ahead of us to do that. But

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Speaker 2: it's going to be part of the mix, but not

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Speaker 2: the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: If you go back to the onslow scrap, which was

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Speaker 1: it killed the desire to invest. Are the settings as

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Speaker 1: you sit here talking to us this morning, right.

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Speaker 2: I believe. So there's definitely right market signals now. So

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Speaker 2: there's the signals being sent to say we need to

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Speaker 2: keep building and we are doing that. There's signals that

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Speaker 2: are being sent to say do it at pace, and

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Speaker 2: we're going at pace. That The issue is how long

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Speaker 2: does it take to actually bring some of those on streams.

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Speaker 2: So from the time we sort of press the button

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Speaker 2: to build a wind farm, you know, you press the

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Speaker 2: button and then it's sort of the machine starts to churn.

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Speaker 2: Over the space of a two or three years, a

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Speaker 2: wind farm will be built, but that obviously through that

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Speaker 2: time crat's an issue where you might not have the

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Speaker 2: power when you need it, and that's where you need it.

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Speaker 2: A suite or a portfolio offer mechanisms which include the

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Speaker 2: Huntley firming.

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Speaker 1: In what year do I get you on this program

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Speaker 1: and we no longer need to talk about winter and

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Speaker 1: winter being a problem and having a production drag for

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Speaker 1: this country.

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Speaker 2: I can't want an exact date, but I'd say over

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Speaker 2: the next few years we'll get there. There's certainly a

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Speaker 2: fair amount of energy being built now. The only thing

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Speaker 2: will happen is if something again suddenly comes out of

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Speaker 2: left field. But by the time you combine the wind

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Speaker 2: that's been built, the soul that's been built, the geo

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Speaker 2: therm or that's been built, back it up with the

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Speaker 2: Huntly firming options, I think we're putting ourselves in a

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Speaker 2: really good position. And you can see that at the

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Speaker 2: moment with there's green shoots. I'd say in terms of

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Speaker 2: industrial demand, we're seeing Fonteria electrifying. We've got great projects

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Speaker 2: with the likes of Busy who are committing to twenty years.

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Speaker 2: We've had TII, which is a globally significant industry committee

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Speaker 2: for twenty years and I think you combine that with

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Speaker 2: a number of interests from data centers, is a fearbit

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Speaker 2: coming at US, which is pretty exciting.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic good insights. St appreciate your expertise, Stewart Hamilton, chief

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Speaker 1: executive of Mercury New Zealand. For more from The Mic

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Speaker 1: Asking Breakfast, listen live to news Talks at B from

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