Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO on the need to enforce any potential changes to the energy sector

Changing the rules of the electricity sector is one thing, getting the sector to follow the rules could be another. 

The Electricity Authority is proposing requiring the four main electricity generators to sell power to independent companies at the same price they sell power to themselves. 

The independents would also get the same access to hedge contracts, protecting them from price fluctuations. 

Mike Casey —the chief executive of electrification advocacy group Rewiring Aotearoa— told Andrew Dickens the rules need to be given teeth. 

He says there is a lot of work that needs to be done to make sure this actually happens, rather than being enforced after the fact. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Energy Competition Task Force is making moves to bring
down the power bills, and good on them, because we
all want that. It is recommended that the Electricity Authority
crack down on gen tailors who neglect to be fair
and competitive. And now the authority is seeking feedback on
the proposed approach, and we've got the CEO of Rewiring
ALT role with us, Mike Casey, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
To you, given morning, Andrew, there you go, very good.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
So what would the monitoring companies actually do and how
would this make our power bills smaller?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, this is pretty exciting because one of the big
things that the independent retails are the ones that don't
generate electricity have been sort of talking about for a
long time, is it hadn't been particularly their playing field.
So the idea behind this change is essentially that the
large into town with the likes of Contact Angie, Meridian,
Mercury and so they are going to have to sell

(00:51):
power to the independent generators at the same price they
sell it to themselves. And that's just pretty exciting. There's
a lot of work that needs to be done to
make sure that this actually does have happen and happens
effectively and one thing that we're sort of calling for
it rewiring. Else said, oh, is really trying to figure
out how to make sure that this is mandatory rather
than just sort of policing it maybe after the fact.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, So the question is if they do manage by monitoring,
which is a bit of scowling, they manage to get
these gent tailors, the big four, you know, who have
both sides of the equation, If they do manage to
offer this stuff to Independence, will those generators bump up
the price to keep the same level of profits that

(01:30):
they're getting at them at the same time, so will
we actually get a lower price?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
That is potentially an issue, but I think on the
other side of it, it's quite exciting. We've seen most
of the innovation around pricing for consumers. Most of the
innovative products coming out, such as things like free hour
of power, things like that, are coming from the Independence,
So it being a playing field, I am very, very
optimistic that this will cause a downward pressure on power prices,

(01:56):
more innovation in the space, which is ultimately best for
the customer. That is something the regulator is going to
have to make sure. Right at the end of the day,
there is the theory that it can put down with
pressure on prices, but we have seen the path that
that is not necessarily always the case.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
In an ideal world. Would you prefer that generators are
absolutely separated from retailers.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I think that's the big drastic step that the government
is going to have to be looking at to see
whether that is the ultimate outcome. This is kind of
a bit of a lower touch step that might resolve
some of the issues and do it far, far faster.
And I think the thing that we're seeing now for
the customers of New Zealand, things are going to be
done really quickly because power builds keep rising in this
country and they don't need to be.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
And part of the reason they keep rising is that
we keep on running out of power because it keeps
on being dry and everything is renewable. Eighty five percent
of our power is renewable. So you know, you got
your finger on the pulse. Are we going to have
another power crisis this winter?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, I mean I keep my finger on the pulse
a lot because i have a huge amount of soul
on my farm and I'm doing very well out of
that at the moment. Selling at the wholesale rate where
the price of power is incredibly high. So I do
have my finger on the a lot in that regard.
It isn't raining at the moment. I was just on
the shores of Lake Chippo a couple of days ago,
and it's looking very, very dry. What we do every
year is we sort of sit there and wait and

(03:09):
pray for rain. Sometimes it comes. In the case of
twenty to twenty four, it didn't. So you know, it's
all going to come down to the work of gods
at the moment, see how this energy industry copes with
the current shortage of water. It's not looking good at
the moment. And so yes, anything that we can do
in the space to improve innovation and also roll out
alternative forms of generation like riftop solo on homes and

(03:30):
on farms is going to make a massive difference to
the outcome for customers.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
All Right, Mike Casey, thank you so much. Mike Casey
is the CEO of Rewiring ah Tier.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Right for more Familiarly edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
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