Podcasts Other The Mike Hosking Breakfast Mike's Minute: We need the full story on the power crisis

Mike's Minute: We need the full story on the power crisis

Published: Aug. 21, 2024, 11:21 p.m.

A not unfair question to ask, as we return to the power crisis of 2024, is are we being told the full story?\xa0

For the third time Tiwai has been asked to reduce power use.\xa0

Methanex is allegedly in the throes of cutting another deal with the Government over gas.\xa0

Winston has already announced they are closing. They are not alone.\xa0

The Major Electricity Users' Group is asking us, all of us, to use less power.\xa0

So just how bad is this? Who knows how bad it is, and are they not telling us?\xa0

I read an article that involves one of the mill workers being laid off. He talks of the meeting where the boss is in tears, lots of people are in tears as, of a town of one thousand, 230 are losing their jobs.\xa0

People text me and talk of hedging. It's not an unfair point but you can't hedge forever, and the major point is not the here and now. It's the fact the here and now is not a one off.\xa0

Each and every winter Transpower tells us about cold mornings and supply issues. This is at the same time that whatever the power companies are investing in clearly doesn\u2019t cover the gab.\xa0

It also clearly doesn\u2019t take into account EV's, data centres and A1.\xa0

If an aluminium smelter can't do what it wants to and if a mill can't even open, we aren't really forging ahead to a new tomorrow with AI and data centres springing up all over the place.\xa0

Methanex is now a company that sells gas, not produces methane. How many people are giving up how much to scrape through?\xa0

If we scrape through, what then? Apart from the sigh of relief, what then?\xa0

What's the plan? Is the investment as it stands providing us with a future-proofed level of power or not?\xa0

Does anyone really know?\xa0

I don\u2019t blame the worker in the article, but he asked why the Government doesn\u2019t bail the mill out, given Mercury supply the power and the Government has a stake in Mercury.\xa0

When you're asking questions like that pretty much everything is broken.\xa0

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