Mike Casey: Rewiring Aotearoa CEO says declining gas supplies could accelerate the shift to cleaner and cheaper energy

An electrification advocate says the rising price and falling supply of gas may not be a bad thing in the long-term. 

PwC research —commissioned by Gas Industry Co— has found New Zealand's gas market will need to shrink sharply as domestic supply declines.  

It warns this could mean business closures, job losses, and higher energy costs. 

Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey told Ryan Bridge it's going to be a tough transition, but we need to move away from gas anyway. 

He says gas is an expensive and inefficient technology, especially in homes, and the more people get off it, the better it will be for them in the long run. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New PwC report the Maui gas field could run dry
by twenty twenty seven. Myth and X. This is Tartanaki,
largest gas user in the country, could shut early next year.
Report was done for the Gas Industry company basically says
we're on the road to running out of natural stuff.
Mike Casey rewiring alted oh CEO with me this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Morning, Mike, Good morning, Ryan. My wait to pick off
a Friday.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey, what does this tell us anything? We don't know?
I mean, we know, we kind of know we're running
short on gas, don't we.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I mean, I think this report basically tells us that
the solution from the gas industry is more gas, and
in reality, we need to figure out how to get
New Zealanders off gas as fast as we can.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
But they have a point, don't they, That there's this
turning point in the twenty thirties where we've got lots
of demand still manufacturing, petrochemicals, food production. You can't transition overnight.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
It's going to be a tough transition. But I think
the main thing is we have to look at what's
in the best interest of everyday new ylinders, and that's
certainly going to be giving them off gas. I think
they're overestimating the amount of demands that is going to
be for there is going to be four gas and
obviously trying to justify allergy gas terminals and things like that.
But the real short answer here is that gas is

(01:12):
a really expensive, inefficient technology, especially in our homes, and
the more that we can do to electrify those homes,
get our hot water off gas, get our spatial heating
off gas, and get our cooking off gas, the better
it's going to be for New Zealanders.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
And where do we get the electricity from?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
So this is one of the big things, right you're
referring heads to the dry year in particular. Yeah, yes,
So we need to look at very seriously at the
energy system of New Zealand and how do we build
out the cheapest and basically the most affordable energy system
we can. I believe that's certainly a rollout of renewables.
And when you look at the renewables that are in
the pipeline now, I think the dry your problem is

(01:48):
largely going to solve itself provided we make sure that
the renewables that are consented and are looking to be
built R and D built and they're built quite quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
But even if you look at the most renewable as
solar and Europe, et cetera. I mean, there are times
when everybody says, the wind doesn't blow, the sun doesn't shine,
the rain doesn't fall, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's a classic fossil fuel industry line, isn't it. But
you know, if it doesn't rain and the sun doesn't shine,
you're usually in a pretty interesting situation. I think with
the weather, the long story shorts, we have these amazing
hydro dams that are great batteries, and when we're looking
about seasonal shortages, we're always going to have sun throughout
the season. And so one of the big things we

(02:30):
can do really is generate more energy, more electricity through renewables,
so that we can drain those dams a little bit
less and ultimately hold onto our water for longer and
make our system way more secure.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
At what date, on what date will we have enough
renewable energy to power the entire country, including all of
the aforementioned you know, private sector stuff that needs to
be taken care of.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
That is something that's going to be quite difficult to answer,
and I think they may always be the need for
a small amount of fossil fuels for that backup for
the last a five to ten percent of our energy
system doesn't really need to be gas. I think we've
been burning gas in our electricity system because it's been
there and it's been convenient to do so. We have
other fossil fuels in New Zealand as well, like diesel

(03:17):
and coal, and our argument really is it's roll out renewables.
Let's be pragmatic though, make sure that at the end
of it that if we do start to get into
a situation where we run out more than that we
should use the We should use the fossil fuels that
we already import to make sure that we keep the
lights on and keep our economy going.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
All right, Mike, appreciate your time. Mike Case is CEO
of Rewiring out here Doha.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.