Mike's Minute: Why are we only now thinking of new energy ideas?

It's only the start of Wednesday so let's be honest we've only had two days of news, and we already have two stories around power. 

The first was Transpower saying we need to find more avenues of power generation and we need to do that quickly, because until all the promised transition stuff comes online, we are going to be short of capacity. 

No kidding. 

They said we have a lot of promises on renewables, but the delivery isn't happening all that quickly. 

No kidding. 

The second was Genesis saying they are looking at what they call a fast-start generation plant at Huntly. 

Hasn’t Huntly become quite the “thing”? A while back Huntly was the ugly girlfriend of the power generation family. 

Poor, old, ugly, fat Huntly. That was when promises around wind and sun were flying and the future was renewable, and we would all save the planet. 

What a gargantuan cock-up that turned out to be. Now for at least the third winter in a row the industry is falling over itself to tell us what's not right, what's not delivered and drumming up new ideas that, dare I suggest, should have been drummed up a long time ago. 

As regards Huntly gas and coal, could I ask why is it now that they are dreaming up these ideas? 

The coal pile, by the way, has never been larger, but gas and coal take 12 hours to get going. In short, fast start, it says what it does, and you turn it on like a light. 

Can I ask why is it now that all the power companies are cooperating around Huntly to keep it going for years to come? 

Why is it we wait until we are broken to actually find a few solutions? 

When Jacinda made her captain's call to kill the gas industry, why did no one in power go “hold on, we aren't ready"? 

Why are so few proactive? Why is so little preventative planning done? 

Why do we have winters of angst around rainfall and businesses cutting production and Methanex selling their power to others? 

Why is it we wait until we don’t have it to think of what to do about getting it back? 

NZ Inc, eh? Very 1986.   

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I mean it's only Wednesday. In fact, it's only the
start of Wednesday. So let's be honest. We've only had
two days of new so far, and already two stories
around power One Transpower said we need to find more
revenues of power generation, and we need to do that
quickly because until all the promised transition stuff comes online,
we're going to be short of capacity. No kidding. They said,
we have a lot of promises on renewable, but the

(00:21):
delivery isn't happening all that quickly, no kidding. And then
two Genesis says they are looking at what they call
a fast start plant at Huntley. Hasn't Huntley become quite
the thing? Ah? A while back, Huntley was the ugly
girl friend of the power generation family, Poor old, ugly
fat Huntley. That was when promises around wind and sun
were flying and the future was renewable and we could

(00:43):
all save the planet. What a gargantuan cock up that
turned out to be. Now, for at least the third
winter in a row, the industry's falling over itself to
tell us what's not right, what's not delivered, and drumming
up new ideas that dere I suggest should have been
drummed up a long time ago. As regards Huntley, Gas
and coll the coal pile by the why has never
been larger. But gas and cole takes twelve hours to
get going in short fast starts. Is what it does?

(01:05):
You turn it on like a light. Could I ask
why is it now they're dreaming up these ideas? Can
I ask why is it now that all the power
companies are cooperating around Huntley to keep it going for
years and years to come? Why is it we wait
until we are broken to actually find a few solutions.
Wenjesinda made that captain's call to kill the gas industry.
Why did no one in the power industry go, hold on,

(01:28):
We're not ready? Why are so few proactive? Why is
so little preventative planning done? Why do we have winters
of angst around rainfall and business cutting production and method
excelling their power to others. Why is it we wait
until we don't have anything left to think about what
to do about getting it back? New Zealand Ink Very

(01:49):
nineteen eighty six. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks it'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,