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Speaker 1: Cold Watch.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, Huntley's power station is going to remain operational

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Speaker 2: for the next decade. The country's big four gent tailors

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Speaker 2: have signed a deal and they're going to stockpile up

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Speaker 2: to an extra six hundred thousand tons of cold Huntley.

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Speaker 2: They're hoping this will protect against the energy crunches in

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Speaker 2: the winter like what happened last year. The ComCom still

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Speaker 2: has to sign off on this. Malcolm John's is the

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Speaker 2: chief executive at Genesis Energy. Hey, Malcolm, good evening, How

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Speaker 2: are you well think you know? Why did you want

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Speaker 2: the other gent tailors to be involved with you rather

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Speaker 2: than going it alone.

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Speaker 1: Well, in essence, the machine that we're talking about was

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Speaker 1: due to go into retirement in February next year, and

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Speaker 1: from a purely Genesis perspective that made sense. But from

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Speaker 1: a wider New Zealand perspective, there was a case to

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Speaker 1: invest in keeping that machine in play for another decade,

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Speaker 1: and so Genesis couldn't do that on its own, and

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Speaker 1: so we entered into a discussion with the others around

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Speaker 1: toe investment to keep that machine in play for energy

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Speaker 1: security for dry years and when the wind doesn't blow.

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Speaker 2: So why does it make sense for you but not

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Speaker 2: for them.

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Speaker 1: It makes sense for everybody. But effectively it's dealing with

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Speaker 1: system risk rather than genesis risk. And so we couldn't

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Speaker 1: ask our shareholders to fund that on their own because

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Speaker 1: that would be writing an insurance policy for the broader system.

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Speaker 1: And so everyone going in together means that we collectively

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Speaker 1: share the cost of providing that system wise insurance.

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Speaker 2: Malcolm, I write, and remembering correctly that it was just

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Speaker 2: last week that you guys were saying you don't have

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Speaker 2: enough agreement, you might shut it down, and then suddenly

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Speaker 2: they've come to the party. Is that what has happened?

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Speaker 1: I know if we very care all the way through

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Speaker 1: that without an agreement, the machine would go into retirement

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Speaker 1: as a regional Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I guess what I'm asking is when did you strike

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Speaker 2: this agreement?

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Speaker 1: Well, we began discussions in February. In about two months

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Speaker 1: or about six weeks ago, we announced that we'd reached

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Speaker 1: an agreement on terms and conditions, and we were documenting

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Speaker 1: the contract at that point, and so we weren't concerned

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Speaker 1: during the last six weeks in terms of the contract.

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Speaker 1: We just had to finalize it and sign it.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I see, now, how long does it how long

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Speaker 2: do you reckon it's going to take you to get

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Speaker 2: through that six hundred thousand tons.

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Speaker 1: Well as Huntley, like last winter, has all three ranking

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Speaker 1: units running. It burns ten thousand tons a day. And

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Speaker 1: in essence, what happened is we ran out of coal

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Speaker 1: last winter, or we came very close to running out

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Speaker 1: of coal last winter, and so the six hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: ton reserve just means that that won't happen again in

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Speaker 1: the future. And of course we bought the gas from Methinx,

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Speaker 1: and Methinx closed for two months and it rained two

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Speaker 1: weeks later, and so having coal is much more flexible,

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Speaker 1: and that's why the coal reserve is beneficial.

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Speaker 2: But that's only a couple of months. If if we're

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Speaker 2: going hell for leather, it's a couple of months worth

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Speaker 2: of coal.

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Speaker 1: A remember that it's in that six hundred thousand tons

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Speaker 1: is in addition to the normal coal spot pilot hunting,

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Speaker 1: which is five hundred thousand tons, So it gives you

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Speaker 1: a million tons of coal and effectively to run through

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Speaker 1: a dry period.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, do you think the Commerce Commission is going to

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Speaker 2: sign this off that haf do? I? I mean, otherwise

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Speaker 2: they'd be looking at power cups.

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Speaker 1: Well, I would assume that they will take a normal

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Speaker 1: look at this through the Commerce Act. We believe, based

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Speaker 1: on the advice we have that it's appropriate, but it's

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Speaker 1: for them to take a look at it now and

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Speaker 1: decide whether it is or is in appropriate.

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Speaker 2: We have spoken about in the past about shutting Huntley down,

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Speaker 2: but are we ever going to shut the old girl down?

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Speaker 1: I think we need to talk about how we evolve Huntley.

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Speaker 1: It's the only power station that sits in between Auckland,

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Speaker 1: Hamilton and tod On It it's New Zealand's largest power

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Speaker 1: station and it has an enormous connection to the grid.

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Speaker 1: And so the assets and fuels that Huntley will change

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Speaker 1: over the next next twenty five years. It's difficult to

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Speaker 1: see it shutting down completely.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, brilliant, Hey, thank you, Malcolm appreciated. That's Malcolm John's

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Speaker 2: Genesis Energy chief executive. When you think about it late that,

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Speaker 2: you think, why did we have a go oh there?

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Speaker 2: Why did we even discuss shutting her down if she

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Speaker 2: was still working for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

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