Karen Boyes: Major Electricity Users' Group Executive Director talks expected energy sector reforms

The energy sector's hopeful that Government reforms will be bold,  and address their concerns.

Energy Minister Simon Watts is expected to announce reforms today, which will focus on issues the market hasn't been able to solve itself. 

Major Electricity Users' Group Executive Director, Karen Boyes, says told Ryan Bridge Liquefied Natural Gas could be an option - as we're running out of domestic gas.

She says LNG isn't the cheap option, but would guarantee more supply.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So eight am will get the frontier report, We'll get
the government's action plan. This is happening very soon. Industry
leaders calling for bold moves. Karen Boys's Major Electricity Users
group with us this morning. Karen, Good morning, Good morning, Ryan.
Have you had a look at the report yet? Have
you give men given a copy?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
No? No, So, just like you and many others, I'm
sitting here waiting till eight o'clock deadline for it to
come out.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Are you are you holding your breath or are you
actually realistic that this is going to be more tweaks
than bold moves.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's really I mean, I'd like to be optimistic. In
hope they've listened to the calls from everybody. I said,
the mood of the boardroom was pretty clear that, you know,
energy is real concerns. So I hope they've been bold,
but I think sadly I'm going to have to be
realistic about what they might choose to do.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
How do you feel about Alan.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
G It's yeah, I said it. We certainly helped with
bringing in fuel. I said, obviously we're running out of
domestic gas, and I said, any options to a domestically
I said, we'll have time if we do discover it
and to bring it to market. Ler G does link

(01:08):
us to international markets, which means that the cost could
be quite high. So I said, it doesn't mean it's
the cheap option for the country. It just provides you
with I guess, more guaranteed supply.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
And what about the access to it? You know, who
would get access to it? What would the cost be?
Are those things that you've looked into that you're worried.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
About, you haven't looked at it in detail? I said.
The big question will be is LERNG available for everybody?
And so that means the electricity generators as well as
users of guests directly, because I said, industrial users are
finding it increasingly hard to get gas at all. So
I said, they'll be keen to understand could they access

(01:47):
it and what does the cost? Because that don't really
decide whether they can afford to use it or have
to try and transition or yet make the hard decisions
to perhaps stop business.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Can you paint a picture for us, Karen, how bad
will thinks get? You know, your major in it, electricity
users group, your big clients, your big members. What happens
if we don't sort this out?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I said, some of the businesses at the moment who
are struggling to get gas supplies will have to make
the hard decisions about whether they can convert over to electricity.
Best case, some of them can. I said, then we're
faced with a large demand coming to the electricity system,
and we're going to be faced with having to build
a heat to build fast. The question is can we

(02:33):
get the network built out in advance of this, Can
we get the generation built, can we get it connected
to the system. There's going to be a lot of
pressure on the system, and I said, we're already facing
quih cost. So I said, you're going to see a
real risk a lot of businesses are going to have
to reduce production shutdowns. That is a real concern. There

(02:55):
are a number of businesses that who do have long
term contracts, so that there are a number who will
probably be able to wear whether or it out for
a while. Sort of question is how long? And the
worst thing is we might miss opportunities like dat is
another either other technology and innovation that might want to
come here that might decide not to. So I said,

(03:15):
we're rest losing what we've got, and we're also resc
losing what might have come here.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Karen, appreciate your time this morning. Karen Boys Major Electricity
Users Group.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
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