by Jonathan Gardiner | Jun 2, 2015 | Energy
The Gas Industry Co has issued the latest update of The New Zealand Gas Story – the State and Performance of the New Zealand Gas Industry. The third edition of this publication can be found here.
Notable elements of the update are:
• The Report updates current statistics and other information from a variety of published sources. Due to the staggered nature of formal disclosures the Distribution section will be updated when all latest Distribution Network disclosures are to hand at the end of April.
• The Gas Pricing section incorporates extended discussion of the wholesale gas market with additional information flowing from the operation of the wholesale trading platform.
• A variety of recent reports have fed into extended discussion of gas supply and demand scenarios, and the opportunities and challenges they may present.
Overall, the Report notes that the gas industry continues to be in good health, although it faces some headwinds:
• The total market has grown on the back of a return to full three-train methanol production at Methanex.
• Increased petrochemical demand is offset by a continuing trend towards a gas ‘peaking’ role in electricity generation, with a resulting further reduction in gas use for baseload generation. At the same time broader retail market demand is relatively flat.
• Fall in international oil prices is inevitably affecting New Zealand upstream investment, especially because New Zealand exploration is targeted mainly at oil. Smaller explorers and producers are particularly affected. Oil prices will continue to change within the longer horizons of the New Zealand gas story, however, and new and large investors continue to be attracted to New Zealand through the block offers regime.
• An intensive exploration effort in the last few years has to date not yielded the significant new discoveries that many hoped for. But the domestic gas markets have seen a lift in reported reserves levels in the past year from further development of existing fields, and new figures on ‘contingent’ reserves from those fields signal significant further potential.
• Downstream, gas consumers continue to be well-served and customer numbers are growing. Consumers have a good and expanding choice of retailers with recent new entrants strengthening an already competitive market. And the emsTradepoint wholesale market is gaining traction, with increasing market participants and volumes traded.
• Existing gas infrastructure is expected to carry the industry forward in the foreseeable future, pending any future step change in the form of a major new discovery or a substantial new demand source.
For more information about the Gas Industry Co please click here.
by chris | May 19, 2015 | Energy
Total Utilities provides an end to end approach to utility optimisation by focusing on the key business drivers such as controlling cost and consumption. Typically we find that businesses can overlook the strong relationship that exists between purchasing prices, consumption and the efficiency and effectiveness of utilisation.
Through tailored services that can help any business assess, improve and manage on site levels of energy efficiency, with the use of innovative energy efficiency and energy management methodologies businesses will be able to generate up to a 40% reduction in total energy usage, which directly correlates to significant cost savings, increasing the sustainability of your business. (more…)
by RichardGardiner | May 19, 2015 | Energy
According to BloombergBusiness in the USA:
‘The race for renewable energy has just passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas and oil combined. And there’s no going back’.
‘The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels. The shift will continue to accelerate and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added’.
‘The price of wind and solar power continues to plummet and is now on par or cheaper than grid electricity in many areas of the world. Solar, the newest major source of energy in the mix, makes up less than 1% of the electricity market today but could be the world’s biggest source by 2050, according to the International Energy agency’.
‘The question is not if the world will transition to cleaner energy, but how long it will take’.
(more…)
by RichardGardiner | May 6, 2015 | Energy, ICT, Waste
The recent Commerce Commission ‘ruling’ on Unfair Contract Terms for utilities is great news for businesses.
Total Utilities has been negotiating utility agreements since 1999 and a recurring bugbear for us in the past 16 years has been the use of automatic contract roll-over and right of renewal/price-matching provisions by some suppliers to constrain effective competition.
Put bluntly, these clauses have been used as a ‘hospital pass’ by the suppliers in question to avoid a level competitor playing field – especially in the waste services/recyclables and natural gas markets.
As of 16 March 2015, the applicable new agreements must not include such clauses (i.e. Unfair Contract Terms).
It must be emphasised however that these contract clauses are still allowed if existing supply/service agreements are renewed for a further term.
The implications of this are very clear, businesses should negotiate brand new agreements covering the utilities etc in question – don’t just roll your existing agreement on the basis of unchanged contract terms and conditions.
Reference should be made to the Commerce Commission website for full details of their ruling. A PDF of the ruling can be downloaded here.
by chris | Jan 15, 2015 | Energy
Geothermal generation supplied nearly 20% of New Zealand’s total electricity last week – a substantial rise from the average 7% contribution from this energy source. The spike in demand was due to lower than average output from thermal and hydro generation, caused by power station outages in December and low inflow levels in the country’s hydro lakes.
Thermal-based generation outages kept pricing elevated throughout December and Contact’s Otahuhu B plant in Auckland remains out due to on-going maintenance. National water storage in hydro lakes has continued to fall around 7% below average for this time of year. Latest NIWA forecasts predict less than a 50% chance of rainfall hitting normal levels in the South Island between January and March. This could be compounded by above-normal temperatures in the west of the South Island over the same period with a 35-40% chance of average temperatures in all other Southern regions.
The country’s biggest hydro generator, Meridian, is reported as being “comfortable with the current situation.” Meridian’s operating report for December shows its inflows last month were 81 per cent of average. (more…)
by Jonathan Gardiner | Dec 2, 2014 | Waste
Earlier this year Tamaki College’s executive officer, Neil McEnteer had no hesitation in handing over the school’s waste contract to Total Utilities for review. Since his first dealings with the utilities experts in 2012, Neil had seen the college benefit from significant savings across electricity, gas and telecoms bills. He remembers being quietly confident of another good result.
“In a sector where budgets are very tight, it is important keep costs to a minimum,” said Neil. “Every dollar we save is a dollar more we can spend on teaching and learning.
“Unless you are proactive, completely up to date with market information and have read all the fine print, it’s difficult to be sure that you’ve secured the best utilities contracts. Working with Total Utilities has shown us just what can be achieved when you bring in the experts.”
In 2012 Total Utilities cut the college spend on electricity by 12% and then by a further 13% through an early renegotiation in 2014. Acting on their advice, Neil moved the college’s gas supply contract to a new retailer in 2012, reducing annual costs by 13%. To complete the trifecta, Total Utilities renegotiated the school’s telecoms contract at the beginning of 2014, resulting in an overall saving of 29%.
“While we were discussing one of the other contract renewals, I asked for advice on our waste spend. Without realising it, we had allowed our contract to automatically roll over for two consecutive three-year terms. Jonathan Gardiner from Total Utilities took one look at the figures and said we could do way better on the price.”
Waste contracts almost always require 90 days’ notice prior to the renewal date if the customer wants to review pricing. If this opportunity passes, the pricing and contract terms automatically roll over for another three years. (more…)
