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Speaker 1: How do I have good news here? Well, the lakes

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Speaker 1: are choker in flows for one hundred and twenty three percent

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Speaker 1: of historic average. That's the second highest July to December

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Speaker 1: period on record. A generation volume is also up thirteen percent,

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Speaker 1: which means prices are down. Mike Rohan, of course, as

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Speaker 1: the chief executive at Meridian and is with us. Mike morning, Mike,

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Speaker 1: how I is one very well. Indeed, there's no pattern

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Speaker 1: to this though. I mean, good honess for having some rain,

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Speaker 1: But I mean I could easily talk to you next

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Speaker 1: year and it could be the exact opposite, couldn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yep. The weather can be fickle, as we're learning in

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Speaker 2: the country right now, it can be very challenging. But

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Speaker 2: we are you know, you noted we're in better shape

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Speaker 2: than we were in twenty twenty four, and compared to that,

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Speaker 2: we might even have the lowest wholesale electricity prices in

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Speaker 2: the OECD. So you know that we are making some

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Speaker 2: progress in restoring balance from that period. But the job,

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Speaker 2: as you know, it's fast from done.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Can I see in my bill right here right now?

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Speaker 2: The savings if you are a customer that uses wholesale

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Speaker 2: electricity prices Yes, if you are a commercial industrial customer

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Speaker 2: that is about to recontract looking at those wholesale electricity prices. Yes,

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Speaker 2: Residential customers, unfortunately, you will see increases in their bills

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Speaker 2: driven by the POMICS Commission approved increases to the lines,

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Speaker 2: the distribution and transmission charges. It will flow through over

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Speaker 2: the next three or so years. So you know, large

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Speaker 2: customers that were affected by the events of twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: four are seeing some respite.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I read the article over the summer. I don't

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Speaker 1: know where it was, I can't remember, but you were

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Speaker 1: featured heavily in it, and you talked very bullishly of

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Speaker 1: hydro Was I correct in reading in that article you're

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Speaker 1: somehow going to expand or look to expand some facility

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Speaker 1: in try. You're going to try.

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Speaker 2: We're going to try, Mike, We're going to try. Is

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Speaker 2: you know that the focus we've had has been investing

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Speaker 2: in wind farm and solar farms to recover the energy

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Speaker 2: balance can we lost gas. Because we've done that, we've

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Speaker 2: also looked at how we might support competitive advantage in

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Speaker 2: the wider economy. And what we know is that you know,

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Speaker 2: other countries that we compete against, they can also invest

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Speaker 2: in solar and wind farms. Yes, but what we've got

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Speaker 2: access to here in New Zealand is water and that's

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Speaker 2: something that they don't and you know, water is both

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Speaker 2: flexible and it's cheap. So you know, if we can

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Speaker 2: build out those hydro generation facilities, we can support you.

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Speaker 2: It'd be a game changer for the New Zealand economy.

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Speaker 2: It will just take us time. Well, they do it,

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Speaker 2: our viewers that side.

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Speaker 1: That's where I couldn't work it out. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: can't build anything in this country, even if you do

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Speaker 1: change the RMA. So you're looking to expand what you've

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Speaker 1: got to build something new and is that realistic?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So we're looking to expand what we've got. You know,

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Speaker 2: we think the obvious place to look is the McKenzie Basin,

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Speaker 2: which is where we've already got man made hydro storage lakes.

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Speaker 2: So you know it's not it's been modified and it's

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Speaker 2: not populated down that way. So we're looking to do

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Speaker 2: carefully at what we might do with like Pookaki. But

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Speaker 2: your point, it will take time. You know, hydro development

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Speaker 2: it's a long term initiative and you know we did

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Speaker 2: a great job sixty years ago building out the hydro

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Speaker 2: backbone in the country, and you know we're looking at

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Speaker 2: it going, hey, if people were able to do it,

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Speaker 2: then you know our job is to do it and

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Speaker 2: look at it now and see whether we can't crack

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Speaker 2: the same sort of environment that New Zone's enjoyed over

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Speaker 2: the last twenty four years support the economy.

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Speaker 1: Interesting, all right, good to catch up with you and go, well,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk again this year. I'm sure Mike Ryan look

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Speaker 1: up that article. I can't remember where it was, but

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Speaker 1: he's bullish on that. He also said the Huntly thing,

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Speaker 1: the agreement they've made with the cold round Huntley and

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Speaker 1: all the power companies, that's fixed the problem. So in

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Speaker 1: other words, no bad winters anymore. And then the other

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Speaker 1: thing that was floating about yesterday Mercury turned on their

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Speaker 1: geothermal generator in Talpo and that's going to provide power

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Speaker 1: for one hundred eventually one hundred fifty eight thousand homes

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Speaker 1: fifty five thousand currently not nine geothermal wells. They drilled

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Speaker 1: more than three thousand meters into the ground, so they've

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Speaker 1: got that. They got stage two of their wind farm

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Speaker 1: in Southland and the wind farm in Northland, so a

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Speaker 1: lot of wind, a lot of solar, a lot of geothermal,

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Speaker 1: and of Mike has' way a lot more hydrate.

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Speaker 2: For more from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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