Malcolm Johns: Genesis CEO on the coal restock at Huntly Power Station to avoid a generation shortfall

Genesis Energy says it's doing what it can to ensure Huntly Power Station helps the country avoid another generation shortfall this winter.  

More than 500,000 tonnes of coal was restocked earlier this month, with another 500,000 tonnes on the way before September, in anticipation of demand.  

Genesis Chief Executive Malcolm Johns told Andrew Dickens Huntly's units ran at full capacity last winter, working their way through 800,000 tonnes of coal. 

He says a million tonnes is about appropriate for what he believes can be put through the machines. 

Johns says this kind of preparation will still be needed in the future, even with 95% renewable generation in New Zealand in 2035.  

He says 100% renewable can't genuinely be reached, and back up is needed for when the rain doesn't come and the wind doesn't blow. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, after the last year's energy shortfall, Genesis has beefed
up as stockpile at the Huntley power station. It already
has five hundred thousand tons of coal. There's another five
hundred thousand on the way. That's a million tons of coal.
All of this just in case rain doesn't top up
our hydro lakes in time. So I'm joined now by
the Genesis chief executive, Malcolm John's. Hello, Malcolm, good morning,

(00:23):
How are you good. That's an awful lot of coal.
Where do you keep it?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
We pop it just out behind the power station at Huntley.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's a big mountain of stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's a big mountain of coal.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, exactly where do you get it from?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
How we bring it in from Indonesia?

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Why can't you use New Zealand coal?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, when Huntley power Station was built, it was built
for a very specific chemical compound of coal which was
found in the mines behind Huntley. Those mines are now
predominantly exhausted. So we can buy some New Zealand coal.
But to put that into perspective, we buy New Zealand
can supply about about ten or twenty thousand tons a year,

(01:06):
which is well short of a million tons that we need.
So Indonesia is the only other country that has mines
with the same chemical compound of coal that Huntley needs
at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Would you describe the coal as high grade?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yes, it is. It's less about the grade of it,
more about the way that coal is used is you
crush it into a talcum powder and it gets injected
into the furnaces, and the furnaces are designed for a
certain chemical compound of coal. When you start to move
away from that chemical compound, the furnace has become less

(01:42):
efficient and you get less energy or less electricity out
of every ton of coal.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So a million times of Indonesian coal. How concerned are
you about a possible energy shortfall again this year.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Well, we're doing what we can in terms of ensuring
that Huntley is able to contribute to the system. Huntley
is New Zealand's largest electricity generation site and we have
three two hundred and forty megawatt rankin units at Huntley
that produce the electricity and those units can consume up

(02:19):
to nine thousand tons of coal a day when they're
running at full capacity. We had to run them at
full capacity last winter, and we worked our way through
about eight hundred thousand tons of coal. So a million
tons of coal is about appropriate for what we believe
we can genuinely put through the machines.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
This shows you that we just do not have enough electricity,
doesn't it. I mean, what else could we do to
actually secure our supply without having to burn the coal.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, I think the first thing we've got to remember
is New Zealand is roughly eighty five percent renewable electricity.
Now that's in the top five countries in the world.
And the reality of that is that we rely on
a hydro scheme and wind as big parts of those
and unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't rain and it doesn't blow.

(03:11):
And unfortunately on top of that is that when it
doesn't rain, it also doesn't blow, and so there's a
correlation between rain droughts and wind droughts. Last winter we
had both a rain and a wind rout and there
just simply wasn't enough gas left in New Zealand to
back the system up.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Was Lake Onslow a missed opportunity.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Look, I think there's lots of people with different views
on how you solve this issue. I just think it's
important to remember that at eighty five percent renewable. You're
talking about roughly one or two years every five year
cycle that you need to you rely on thermal generation
to genuinely back up the system. New Zealand by twenty

(03:57):
thirty five will probably be around ninety five percent renew
all generation. That'll be one of the best in the world.
But we're probably likely to never get to one hundred
percent renewable generation. Genuinely. We will need some form of
thermal in the system to keep the lights on when
the rain doesn't come and the wind doesn't blow.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
All right, thank you so much for your time, mates,
and that is Malcolm John's who is the CEO of
Genesis a Million Tons, coming to keep our power on.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
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