Mike's Minute: The Government needs to sort our power crisis

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

So, what to make of the so-called power crisis?

About this time yesterday Mike Fuge from Contact Energy gave an eloquent defence of the power industry.

He said it works fine, we are in a period of transition, the investment is being made and it will all work out well in the end.

Tell that to the mills who have so far closed, or stopped, and the workers who are waiting to hear whether they have jobs.

Tell that to the businesses paying double what they did last year for power.

Tell that to the farming sector, the likes of Fonterra, who say this now affects our export competitiveness.

They claim they have been arguing for industry reform for ages now. ANZCO, who are into meat, are paying twice what they were last year, and you know who that gets passed onto.

In the meantime, the Government is looking at liquefied natural gas.

Contact claimed yesterday on this show an announcement was coming on gas. Let's hope it's good.

And at some point we may or may not hear from the Commerce Commission or the Electricity Authority.

Although, if you have followed the various scraps of late over things like petrol, or building supplies, or supermarkets, or banks, when the likes of authorities get involved it appears to be more headline noise than any actual change.

The big picture is the key here. If we can't make enough power now, even with the arrival of the new stuff like the geothermal power and the wind and the solar, where do EV's, data centres and AI fit in?

Whether at a crisis point or not, power is too expensive in this country and not just too expensive, but clearly unreliable.

Three main things drive the industry currently - rain, gas, and wind.

There isn't enough rain currently.

We stopped looking for gas and current reserves are running out.

The wind isn't blowing.

That's three good options on paper but in reality, it doesn’t work.

So the industry says don’t panic but the users say it’s a crisis and our exports are being hit.

It seems to me this is a job for the Government. Jawboning, to this point, hasn’t and isn't working. Leaving it to the market isn't working.

If you don’t have power, you are third world.

We look, currently, pretty third world.

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