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Viewing cable 05WELLINGTON859, IN DECISIONS ON ENERGY, NEW ZEALAND IS AT A

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
05WELLINGTON859 2005-11-03 04:52 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Wellington
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 WELLINGTON 000859 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EB/TPP, EAP/ANP AND EB/ESC/IEC 
STATE PASS USTR-LCOEN 
COMMERCE FOR ABENAISSA/4530/ITA/MAC/AP/OSAO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PREL NZ ENGR ETRC
SUBJECT: IN DECISIONS ON ENERGY, NEW ZEALAND IS AT A 
CROSSROADS 
 
REF: A. WELLINGTON 849 
     B. WELLINGTON 603 
     C. 2004 WELLINGTON 291 
 
(U) Sensitive but unclassified -- please protect accordingly. 
 
Summary 
------- 
1. (SBU) With the days of abundant and cheap electric power 
over, New Zealand faces critical decisions on how to ensure 
its energy supplies keep pace with future demand.  The task 
is complicated by years of under-investment, regulatory 
uncertainties and uneven government policies.  New Zealand's 
obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and its anti-nuclear 
policy constrain the government's choices.  More than a 
decade after the initial alarms were sounded on a future 
energy shortfall, no solution is evident.  Energy issues were 
largely ignored during the country's recent election 
campaign, aside from the Green Party's calls for energy 
conservation coupled with increased reliance on renewable 
power sources.  With a new Labour-led government in place and 
electricity prices rising rapidly, the stage is set for 
serious debate on how New Zealand can secure future energy 
supplies. 
 
Demand outstripping supply 
-------------------------- 
2. (U) New Zealand no longer can look to dam another river to 
meet electricity demand, which is rising about 2 percent a 
year.  Hydro supplies about 64 percent of the nation's 
electricity, but there are virtually no more politically 
acceptable sites available for large hydropower plants. 
Domestic natural gas, now the second-largest source for 
electric generation with a 16 percent share, is also tapping 
out.  The Maui gas field, which provides 64 percent of the 
nation's natural gas, is expected to run dry by 2007.  New 
electric generating capacity is not coming on line fast 
enough to meet expected load growth and to replace old 
thermal plants by 2025, according to Brian Leyland, an energy 
consultant. 
 
Investment hurdles 
------------------ 
3. (SBU) Years of under-investment in the utility sector -- 
caused in large part by regulatory delays and uncertainties 
-- have left New Zealand faced with the prospect of 
widespread power brown-outs in the event of a single dry 
year.  Government policies and the industry's structure have 
failed to promote competition and discouraged private 
investment. 
 
4. (U) Much of the uncertainty hanging over needed new power 
plants comes from the Resource Management Act (RMA) of 1991, 
which requires local review of major resource uses.  Meridian 
Energy in March 2004 cited uncertainty over obtaining 
resource consents under the RMA as one reason why it pulled 
the plug on a planned NZ $1.2 billion (US $837 million) 
hydropower project, which alone would have provided about 8 
percent of the country's energy needs.  Scrapping what would 
have been the third-largest hydro plant probably spelled the 
end to large-scale hydropower projects.  The RMA has quashed 
other energy investment decisions, such as Genesis Energy's 
plan for a 19-turbine wind farm.  A local council objected to 
the project's potential impact on the visual environment, 
equestrian events and cultural values of the indigenous 
Maori.  Transpower, the state-owned monopoly that owns and 
operates the national transmission grid, wants to complete a 
NZ $1.5 billion (US $1 billion) upgrade, but would need 
separate resource consents from many local councils and 
dozens of landowners -- a process it claims could take years 
to complete.  Parliament in August 2005 amended the RMA, 
which may speed up approvals for energy projects. 
 
5. (SBU) The sector's public-private ownership structure has 
stymied competition and failed to stimulate adequate 
investment in new generating capacity.  Five companies, three 
of which are state-owned enterprises, supply 92 percent of 
the country's electricity needs.  Each of the five is 
vertically integrated, with a hand in both generating 
electricity and retailing it to consumers.  The supposed 
rival companies have swapped customer bases to assemble 
dominant regional power blocs.  That in turn has dissuaded 
new competitors.  Furthermore, the companies see no advantage 
in building additional generating capacity far ahead of their 
customers' demand. 
 
6. (SBU) Government policy also has skewed the sector's 
choices away from its most cost-efficient option: domestic 
coal.  The Labour government, with a tip of the hat to its 
Green Party allies, wants expanded investment in renewable 
sources of electricity generation and continues to support 
New Zealand's participation in the Kyoto Protocol. (The 
government in June announced that New Zealand would likely 
miss its emissions allocation target and have to buy carbon 
credits; ref B.) Yet, New Zealand's largest and most readily 
available energy source is coal, which now generates 9.7 
percent of the country's electricity.  Even with the added 
costs of a NZ $15-per-ton carbon dioxide tax, coal could be 
the cheapest source of additional energy. 
 
7. (SBU) By signaling a willingness to fund some new 
generating capacity, the government risks crowding out 
private investment.  It built and is paying the operating 
costs of a 155 megawatt oil-fired reserve plant that opened 
in June 2005.  It also has underwritten a new 365 MW 
gas-fired power station, which is scheduled to go on line in 
2006 and is owned by state-owned enterprise Genesis Power. 
The head of the Electricity Commission, Roy Hemmingway -- 
formerly chair of the Oregon Public Utility Commission -- 
criticized the government's guarantee as a possible 
deterrence to private investment. 
 
The answer is blowing in the wind? 
---------------------------------- 
8. (SBU) The Electricity Commission set up shop in late 2003 
in hopes of resolving some of the industry's marketing and 
structural problems.  Established to regulate the industry 
after the companies failed at self-governance, the Commission 
is charged with ensuring security of supply and reserve 
generation, investment in the transmission grid, promotion of 
retail competition and energy conservation.  The Commission 
spent its first two years developing a work program and 
planning for reserve energy, but has yet to make any tough 
decisions.  Its first major challenge could be deciding how 
to fund the upgrade of the national grid, which was largely 
built in the 1950s and has been expanded but never 
overhauled.  A proposal to install new transmission lines to 
feed power to the country's largest city, Auckland, has 
aroused fierce resistance from farmers and other landowners. 
 
9. (SBU) New Zealand faces questions with no easy answers on 
how to secure future electricity supplies.  Genesis and 
Contact Energy are pushing for importation of liquefied 
natural gas (LNG) if no new gas discoveries are made in the 
next couple of years.  With LNG prices tracking the rise in 
oil prices, critics say LNG would be expensive and put New 
Zealand at the mercy of a price-volatile commodity.  In 
addition, the oil and gas industry contends that competition 
from LNG would deter exploration for domestic gas supplies. 
Genesis has proposed building three natural gas-fired 
stations, including the 365 MW gas-fired plant.  However, it 
has put future projects on hold until new domestic gas 
supplies to replace the Maui field are assured.  Mighty River 
has proposed converting a mothballed power plant to run on 
coal, but Labour and the Greens are opposed to new 
carbon-emitting plants.  New Zealand's continued reliance on 
hydropower makes it vulnerable to drought-induced electricity 
shortages, such as those that occurred during dry spells in 
2001 and 2003.  A nuclear power option is off the table in a 
country that takes pride in a "green" reputation and an 
anti-nuclear policy that has become part of a national 
identity. 
 
10. (SBU) Almost by default, New Zealand is turning 
incrementally to wind power.  Although costly to build on a 
unit-cost basis and unlikely to meet all of New Zealand's 
future demand, it can be added in smaller amounts with 
smaller price tags than large traditional power plants. 
Over-reliance on wind would require an expensive backup plant 
to supply electricity during calm periods.  Wind farms also 
have faced local opposition.  Meridian and TrustPower have 
plans for NZ $2 billion (US $1.4 billion) in investment in 
wind farms totaling 1000 MW of capacity over the next decade. 
 In just one year, to March 2005, wind power's share of New 
Zealand's electricity generation rose from 0.4 percent to 1.1 
percent. 
 
Comment: Firing up public debate 
-------------------------------- 
11. (SBU) In contrast to the Labour government's strong 
commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and promotion of renewable 
energy, the opposition National Party has said it would 
consider increased use of coal to meet the country's energy 
needs.  National wants to review New Zealand's participation 
in the Protocol and opposes Labour's carbon tax.  The 
government faces increasing complaints over electric power 
prices.  Traditionally low by first-world standards and 
steady because of New Zealand's large stake in 
hydroelectricity, electricity prices jumped in a range of 7.6 
to 10.4 percent during the year ended June 2004.  Recent 
price hikes raised the cost of electricity an additional 8.1 
to 10.1 percent in 2005. 
 
12. (SBU) A consensus has not yet emerged on how New Zealand 
will feed its growing appetite for electricity.  No one type 
of generation has won an edge as cost-effective, sustainable 
or politically popular.  It is clear, however, that New 
Zealand will rely in the future on more varied and costly 
sources of electric power. 
Burnett