Source: Energy Resources Aotearoa
Energy Resources Aotearoa welcomes today’s announcement from Genesis Energy and other major electricity generators, Mercury, Meridian, and Contact, setting out a proposed long-term agreement to establish a strategic energy reserve and retain Huntly’s Rankine units to support a secure energy future for New Zealand.
Energy Resources Aotearoa Chief Executive John Carnegie says the proposal is a pragmatic signal that generators can work together to manage growing system risks.
“As New Zealand navigates the challenges of declining domestic natural gas, growing but intermittent renewable generation, and highly volatile economic and geopolitical conditions, this proposal is a practical response to uncertainty.
“Huntly has long been New Zealand’s energy security blanket. Its dual-fuel capability – capable of running on both coal and natural gas – provides the system with resilience and flexibility, with the potential to expand this to biomass in the future.
More domestic gas supply will further enhance this capability and reduce our dependence on coal during periods of peak demand or supply shortfall.”
“We welcome more wind and solar, but they also make the system more volatile. We need to increase our firm generation capacity even more, in the form of more gas-fired power plants, to meet demand peaks. There’s no single fix, but this proposal is a useful part of the solution as we manage uncertainty.”
Energy Resources Aotearoa will continue to advocate for policy and regulatory settings that support long-term investment in reliable, secure and affordable energy, to power New Zealand’s future.
