Karen Boyes: Major Electricity Users' Group Executive Director talks calls for energy market reform

The ball is now in the Government's court following calls for bold action to fix a broken energy market.  

 An open letter, signed by several influential groups including Consumer NZ and Auckland Business Chamber, has been sent to the Prime Minister.  

Major Electricity Users' Group Executive Director Karen Boyes told Heather du Plessis-Allan an independent review is also now with Energy Minister Simon Watts.  

She says there are lots of underlying issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible, such as increasing prices, market power issues, and the lack of an energy strategy.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've got a group of influential organizations who've penned an
open letter to the Prime Minister calling for immediate action
on electricity. This went into the papers yesterday. Signatories include
the likes of the Auckland Business Chamber, the EMA, Consumer
New Zealand and also the Major Electricity Users Group. Karen
Boys is the executive director of that group and with
us now, Hey Karen, good morning, how I'm well? Thank you?

(00:21):
Is it getting urgent?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
It is getting urgent. And the reason we're calling for
it now is the government has its report from Frontier Economics.
So we've completed the independent review of the electrist market
and it's with the Minister of Energy now to she
read this report, take in the findings and make some
bold action.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Okay, why are you guys putting an open letter in
the papers when he's already got the report. Are you
worried he's not going to do what's in the report.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
What we need is some change that's more than just incremental.
I said. We've seen some positive small steps, but we're
not seeing the action to address the underlying issues. I said.
We've got a drive. We've got a reasonably good winter,
I said, We've got some rain here which you'll get
us through winter twenty five, but we need to make
sure we address the underlying issues like not enough generation,
I said, concerns with prices continue to increase, market power issues.

(01:10):
We don't have an energy strategy, I said. There's a
lot of things that we definitely want to see action
on and as soon as we can.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Right, okay, we've been talking about the not enough generation
for ages. The way that the market is set up,
it kind of leaves us in this position and will
always leave us in this position. So what do you do.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
There? Definitely needs to look at incentives of how we
bring on more, I said. We have a build behind
rather than a head, so we certainly would look at
mechanisms to help that. Encouraged to build a heat Also
that I think more agreements between particularly the government for
a start, could be purchasing from new generators for their
needs to bring costs down for a start. We also

(01:49):
need to look at the funding models, I said, even
the transmission of distribution. I said, we tend to build
just in time. We need to look at how can
we actually start funding this and share the cost of
future generations. And then some ideas starting to be talked about,
similar to what we did for Bold Band.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Do we need a structural breakup?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's definitely a lot of concerns about the sector, and
said a lot of the independent retailers have raised concerns.
Our view is that the issues are really on the
supply side of the market, so we need to look
at that first, saying that though the Frontier report should
be providing some insight into the market structure and whether
it's the best option to give us the supportable energy.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Karen, do you know what's in that report?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
No? I wish I did.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I think we all do. Hey, Okay, just rate the
chances that Simon Wats the Minister, actually does something that
will be sufficient.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
He's certainly understanding the issues and he's been out there
talking to stakeholders, including ourselves, and I said, seeing the
issues that we're seen with businesses, closing the concerns with households.
I think he realizes that the action that we're taking
is helping, but it's not moving the dial.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, Karen, thanks very much. Jolliam Morning, Karen Boys, executive director,
Major Electricity Users Group.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
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