1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,040
Speaker 1: Now, after the last year's energy shortfall, Genesis has beefed

2
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,360
Speaker 1: up as stockpile at the Huntley power station. It already

3
00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:10,760
Speaker 1: has five hundred thousand tons of coal. There's another five

4
00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:13,600
Speaker 1: hundred thousand on the way. That's a million tons of coal.

5
00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:16,400
Speaker 1: All of this just in case rain doesn't top up

6
00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:18,880
Speaker 1: our hydro lakes in time. So I'm joined now by

7
00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:23,720
Speaker 1: the Genesis chief executive, Malcolm John's. Hello, Malcolm, good morning,

8
00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:26,119
Speaker 1: How are you good. That's an awful lot of coal.

9
00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:26,960
Speaker 1: Where do you keep it?

10
00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,000
Speaker 2: We pop it just out behind the power station at Huntley.

11
00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:34,040
Speaker 1: It's a big mountain of stuff.

12
00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:36,440
Speaker 2: It's a big mountain of coal.

13
00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:38,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly where do you get it from?

14
00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:41,639
Speaker 2: How we bring it in from Indonesia?

15
00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:43,280
Speaker 1: Why can't you use New Zealand coal?

16
00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:46,800
Speaker 2: Well, when Huntley power Station was built, it was built

17
00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:49,800
Speaker 2: for a very specific chemical compound of coal which was

18
00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:53,680
Speaker 2: found in the mines behind Huntley. Those mines are now

19
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,400
Speaker 2: predominantly exhausted. So we can buy some New Zealand coal.

20
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,680
Speaker 2: But to put that into perspective, we buy New Zealand

21
00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,840
Speaker 2: can supply about about ten or twenty thousand tons a year,

22
00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,520
Speaker 2: which is well short of a million tons that we need.

23
00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:12,560
Speaker 2: So Indonesia is the only other country that has mines

24
00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:15,640
Speaker 2: with the same chemical compound of coal that Huntley needs

25
00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:17,040
Speaker 2: at the moment.

26
00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:19,080
Speaker 1: Would you describe the coal as high grade?

27
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:23,560
Speaker 2: Yes, it is. It's less about the grade of it,

28
00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:27,120
Speaker 2: more about the way that coal is used is you

29
00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,160
Speaker 2: crush it into a talcum powder and it gets injected

30
00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:34,760
Speaker 2: into the furnaces, and the furnaces are designed for a

31
00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:38,760
Speaker 2: certain chemical compound of coal. When you start to move

32
00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,319
Speaker 2: away from that chemical compound, the furnace has become less

33
00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,880
Speaker 2: efficient and you get less energy or less electricity out

34
00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:46,880
Speaker 2: of every ton of coal.

35
00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,080
Speaker 1: So a million times of Indonesian coal. How concerned are

36
00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,000
Speaker 1: you about a possible energy shortfall again this year.

37
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,160
Speaker 2: Well, we're doing what we can in terms of ensuring

38
00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:01,720
Speaker 2: that Huntley is able to contribute to the system. Huntley

39
00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:06,200
Speaker 2: is New Zealand's largest electricity generation site and we have

40
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:11,400
Speaker 2: three two hundred and forty megawatt rankin units at Huntley

41
00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:19,640
Speaker 2: that produce the electricity and those units can consume up

42
00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,639
Speaker 2: to nine thousand tons of coal a day when they're

43
00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:25,520
Speaker 2: running at full capacity. We had to run them at

44
00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 2: full capacity last winter, and we worked our way through

45
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:34,000
Speaker 2: about eight hundred thousand tons of coal. So a million

46
00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,920
Speaker 2: tons of coal is about appropriate for what we believe

47
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,760
Speaker 2: we can genuinely put through the machines.

48
00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:43,760
Speaker 1: This shows you that we just do not have enough electricity,

49
00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:45,800
Speaker 1: doesn't it. I mean, what else could we do to

50
00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:49,040
Speaker 1: actually secure our supply without having to burn the coal.

51
00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,280
Speaker 2: Well, I think the first thing we've got to remember

52
00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,000
Speaker 2: is New Zealand is roughly eighty five percent renewable electricity.

53
00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 2: Now that's in the top five countries in the world.

54
00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,000
Speaker 2: And the reality of that is that we rely on

55
00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:06,799
Speaker 2: a hydro scheme and wind as big parts of those

56
00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:11,639
Speaker 2: and unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't rain and it doesn't blow.

57
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,360
Speaker 2: And unfortunately on top of that is that when it

58
00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,520
Speaker 2: doesn't rain, it also doesn't blow, and so there's a

59
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:23,280
Speaker 2: correlation between rain droughts and wind droughts. Last winter we

60
00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:26,280
Speaker 2: had both a rain and a wind rout and there

61
00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,080
Speaker 2: just simply wasn't enough gas left in New Zealand to

62
00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:30,079
Speaker 2: back the system up.

63
00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:33,280
Speaker 1: Was Lake Onslow a missed opportunity.

64
00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,840
Speaker 2: Look, I think there's lots of people with different views

65
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,240
Speaker 2: on how you solve this issue. I just think it's

66
00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,480
Speaker 2: important to remember that at eighty five percent renewable. You're

67
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:49,120
Speaker 2: talking about roughly one or two years every five year

68
00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:53,000
Speaker 2: cycle that you need to you rely on thermal generation

69
00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:56,920
Speaker 2: to genuinely back up the system. New Zealand by twenty

70
00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:59,960
Speaker 2: thirty five will probably be around ninety five percent renew

71
00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:03,320
Speaker 2: all generation. That'll be one of the best in the world.

72
00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,320
Speaker 2: But we're probably likely to never get to one hundred

73
00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:11,360
Speaker 2: percent renewable generation. Genuinely. We will need some form of

74
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:13,560
Speaker 2: thermal in the system to keep the lights on when

75
00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:15,760
Speaker 2: the rain doesn't come and the wind doesn't blow.

76
00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:17,400
Speaker 1: All right, thank you so much for your time, mates,

77
00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,159
Speaker 1: and that is Malcolm John's who is the CEO of

78
00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:23,159
Speaker 1: Genesis a Million Tons, coming to keep our power on.

79
00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:27,280
Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live

80
00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,440
Speaker 2: to News Talks it be from five am weekdays, or

81
00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:32,400
Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.