Margaret Cooney: Octopus Energy Chief Operating Officer on the Winstone closures, energy crisis

A relatively new player in the New Zealand power market has hit out at the Electricity Authority and Government amid the power crisis.  

Octopus Energy says that the closure of Winstone Pulp is a sign that urgent change is needed. 

They believe the Government’s decision to scrap the Lake Onslow reservoir project has discouraged electricity investment. 

COO Margaret Cooney told Mike Hosking it could have helped tackle the issue of competition in New Zealand's electricity market. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As Winstone Mills have made their announcement, hundreds of jobs

(00:02):
have lost in the center of the North Island and
the power price debates sparked back up again. Octopus Energy
has operated here for a couple of years, but the
major players in Britain, they've got these sites on the
Electricity Authority. Their COO as Margaret Cooney is, well, there's
Margaret morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
So we're going to be a little bit careful here.
Are you using this to push your barrow where jobs
are lost? Because I know you're one of those retailers
who doesn't like the gent tailor model. Is that what
that's all about?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I think this situation demonstrates the problems in the market.
So the prices in the contracts market, which these large
industrial customers rely on, have been elevated well above average
price of new generation for six years. So six years

(00:51):
is enough time for new generation to be built. It's
enough time for intervention that electro feel authority. So you're
absolutely right that I'm highlighting the issue, but it's because
it's really important. Electricity is really the lifeblood of the

(01:12):
New Zealandercony.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Couldn't agree more. I'm just asking the question because I'm
not one hundred percent convinced it's purely power related this
particular job loss, So it could well be pulp and
logs and stuff like that, but that's not your domain.
Could you defend to any degree what has been said
when the previous government and power Onslow is in play.
When Onslow's in play, no one's investing in anything.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Look, I think the views of the market have identified
quite a number of competition issues, and if competition was
working well, we would have had new generation coming into market.
Things like Onslow are a bit of a distraction because
actually Onslow is a project that would have encouraged more

(01:59):
SHUBN theory have encouraged more renewable investment that we didn't
see that through that period.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
What about the reading report this week? As I have
the pipeline of what's been announced is stupendous when that
gets built, problem solved, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, that's not right, because these projects aren't real until
they have finance committed to them. So if you go
through that pipeline and you look at what projects actually
have finance committed.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
To them, isn't there money in the law for the
stuff you make it green people can't throw money at
you fast enough. Well.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
One of the problems is that many international players would
like to enter the New Zealand market. We're one of those.
But we've identified that there are problems with competition and
the concentration of the gentailers and ultimately you need to
get to those structural issues which have been identified by

(02:54):
the OECD. So earlier in Jurne they came out with
the report that there were barriers to compet in New
Zealand and.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Where I think I do agree with you this EA.
I have no idea what they do. I mean, are
they asleep as anyone turned up at the office. What
do they do?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, look, they've got a statutory objective to act in
the long term intrist of New Zealand consumers. So let's
hope this morning they focus on that.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, nice to talk to you. Appreciate it very much.
Margaret Kuner, who's the Octopus to Energy chief operating Officer.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
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