New Zealand businesses are grappling with skyrocketing costs and energy inefficiencies in today’s turbulent market. But there’s good news on the horizon—hydro storage has surged significantly in the last week, offering a welcome shift.
At Total Utilities, we’ve teamed up with Panoramic Power to provide innovative solutions that help you take advantage of these changes and optimise your energy management.
Panoramic Power delivers a comprehensive, cloud-based energy management solution with mobile app access, offering the most cost-effective option on the market. With rapid ROI and customisable dashboards and reports, it’s tailored to meet your unique needs.
Let’s take a look at some of the key benefits of our powerful energy intelligence solution:
1. Illuminate and Eliminate Energy Waste
Many businesses are unaware of where they use energy within their plant or facility as utility bills don’t provide information relative to opening hours or production runs. Plus the data on the invoice is looking in the rear view mirror. Panoramic Power’s advanced monitoring technology provides real-time data relative to production schedules and operating hours to easily highlight the cost of energy waste.
2. Upgrade to Real-Time Energy Intelligence
Traditional energy monitoring often falls short as it cannot measure key devices and equipment. Our solution offers real-time insights into every piece of equipment, allowing you to monitor performance and prevent unnecessary downtime. You can track the hours your equipment runs, and immediately identify if it starts drawing more current than is expected. This allows for preventative maintenance and a proactive approach that ensures any issues are detected and resolved before they impact your operations.
3. Capitalise on Energy-Saving Opportunities
Missing out on energy-saving opportunities can be costly. Panoramic Power’s system sends timely alerts about potential savings and efficiency improvements, enabling you to act swiftly and reduce your energy costs. Stay ahead of the curve and maximise every opportunity to cut costs!
4. Implement Comprehensive Business Cases to Drive Change
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to implementing energy savings measures is inadequate data to build a comprehensive business case. Our continuous monitoring provides in-depth analysis of device level energy usage and cost, ensuring you have a complete understanding of your equipment’s running costs. This enables you to make informed decisions to enhance efficiency.
5. Address Minor Inefficiencies Before They Escalate
Small inefficiencies can accumulate and lead to significant costs. Panoramic Power helps you pinpoint and address these issues early, preventing them from becoming major problems and ensuring ongoing cost savings.
Why Total Utilities and Panoramic Power Are Your Partners in Innovation
At Total Utilities, we’re committed to finding innovative ways to help businesses like yours tackle rising energy costs. Our partnership with Panoramic Power offers you access to state-of-the-art energy intelligence technology that provides actionable insights and drives energy cost savings.
Ready to bring Energy Savings to light?
Take control of your energy costs with Total Utilities and Panoramic Power. Reach out to us today to discover how our advanced solutions can transform your energy management strategy and deliver substantial savings.
📩 Contact us now to explore how we can help you navigate the challenges of rising energy costs and implement effective, innovative solutions.
Jonathan Gardiner, Managing Director at Total Utilities, provides his perspective on why rethinking waste procurement is crucial for achieving cost savings and operational efficiency for your business.
As businesses strive to optimise their operations, waste management and procurement often don’t receive the attention they deserve. Yet, effective waste procurement is more than just a compliance requirement—it’s a strategic advantage.
I’ve seen firsthand how companies grapple with several challenges in this area, and addressing these issues is crucial for driving efficiency and cost savings.
Key Pain Points in Waste Procurement
Rising Costs: Transport costs, waste disposal levies, and the cost of carbon liabilities are all on the rise. This financial pressure can strain budgets and affect profitability.
Supplier-Favourable Contracts: Waste contracts often heavily favour suppliers. They may include clauses allowing for sudden increases in inflation, transport costs, and disposal charges, often with short notice and frequent adjustments.
Contract Complexity: Many businesses struggle with the fine print of waste contracts. Understanding how these terms could impact your bottom line is crucial but can be challenging without the right expertise.
How Total Utilities Can Help
At Total Utilities, we specialise in transforming these challenges into opportunities for our clients:
Market-Competitive Pricing: We leverage our extensive market knowledge to secure the best prices and identify waste solutions tailored to your specific needs.
Favourable Contract Terms: Our team is skilled in negotiating waste supply contracts that protect your interests and ensure you’re not burdened by unexpected cost increases.
Cost Reduction and Environmental Impact: By optimising your waste processes, we help you reduce costs and minimise the amount of waste sent to landfills, benefiting both your financials and the environment.
Up-to-Date Insights: We keep a close eye on market trends and government policies, providing you with the latest advice and strategies to stay ahead of changes.
Sustainability Focus: With our finger on the pulse of policy and procurement, we offer smart solutions to enhance your sustainability efforts and contribute to a cleaner, greener planet.
If you’re facing challenges in waste procurement and want to explore how we can help optimise your processes and reduce costs, book a free consultation.
Read Director of Operations Grant Truman’s testimonial on how Total Utilities cut Dilworth School’s waste costs by 43% and transformed their waste management.
“Partnering with Total Utilities has been a game-changer for Dilworth School. Their expertise in waste management has resulted in annual savings translating to a 43% reduction in our waste costs. Total Utilities has simplified a complex process, freeing up valuable time for both myself and my team. Their innovative approaches have significantly enhanced our waste management efficiency while making steps in reducing our environmental impact and improving the cleanliness and safety on our sites.
Special thanks to Total Utilities’ Sustainable Business Improvement Manager, Pravind Singh, for securing waste management services that not only offer competitive pricing but also align with doing waste better. His efforts ensured a client-friendly process while advancing our knowledge of environmentally responsible practices. Total Utilities has proven to be an invaluable partner in achieving both efficiency in operations and cost while taking steps to be more sustainable.”
Grant Truman Director of Operations Dilworth School
– Contact Total Utilities to learn more about our waste management, procurement, and landfill reduction services.
Richard Gardiner, Founder & Chairman of the Board at Total Utilities, shares his insights on the unfolding energy crisis in New Zealand. With years of industry experience, Richard delves into the causes, consequences, and future implications of this pressing issue.
Until six years ago NZ, was in the happy position of being self-sufficient for its electricity, natural gas, and LPG requirements.
Our electricity supply was already 80% to 85% renewable, based on a combination of hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, and wind power-based generation. An enviable position in an increasingly volatile world!
We were self-sufficient for our natural gas requirements too.
Overall, we were also self-sufficient when it came to LPG supplies – a net exporter for +/- six months of the year and a net importer for the rest of the year.
Seven years ago, the incoming Labour/Green Government banned all new offshore oil and gas exploration.
The background to this initiative is that political parties ranging from the Greens to ACT, all recognise that NZ is facing an ‘energy trilemma’. This trilemma centres on:
Sustainability considerations – decarbonisation in a climate change impacted world
Price and affordability considerations
Security of supply considerations
While the political parties disagree regarding the importance attached to specific components of the energy trilemma, they all agree that all three are vital to the wellbeing of our country.
Well-intentioned though the gas exploration ban may have been, its practical impact backfired badly on all three elements of the trilemma:
Sustainability negatively impacted – gas supplies already reduced by over a third with the resultant need that additional coal had to be imported for electricity generation at Huntly. Coal emits nearly twice as much carbon as natural gas on a kWh-for-kWh of energy delivered basis.
Electricity and natural gas wholesale and retail prices have rocketed, especially for time of use (TOU) business users.
While the four wholesale divisions of the big generator/retailers (gentailers) are making excellent profits, their retail divisions are not. Neither are the retail businesses of their smaller competitors like Electric Kiwi.
Security of supply considerations – the Winstone Pulp International example during the past week says it all as do the recent occasions when electricity supplies were very tight nationally. This should not happen in a First World country.
Compounding the above problems is the fact that:
Competition has largely collapsed in the current natural gas market. Amongst other things, previous major suppliers like Contact and Ongas have exited the market. Because of this, the option of importing liquified natural gas (LNG) is now being considered.
With LPG, an announcement during the past month confirmed that one of the major LPG suppliers is selling its LPG division to a competitor. Furthermore, as we are no longer self-sufficient for LPG supplies, NZ customers will be more exposed to international LPG price hikes, based on changes in the Saudi Aramco index and fluctuations in the NZD:USD exchange rate.
The implications of the above include:
Electricity and gas procurement is no longer a one-off exercise every two or three years. It is an ongoing process.
The contract review process needs to start much earlier, in terms of existing contract expiry dates, than used to be the case.
Merely signing a new three-year Supply Agreement is not necessarily the best thing to do now.
Opportunities may exist for a short-term supply arrangement to ‘buy time’ for signing up to a longer-term Supply Agreement, as and when a suitable opportunity occurs in the market.
With hydro-electricity accounting for 60% plus of total national electricity generation and our hydro-electric dams only having six or seven weeks storage capacity cover, there is always going to be a degree of volatility in our electricity supply. But this volatility has been significantly compounded since 2017 by our reduced fossil fuel-based generation and inadequate replacement renewable-based generation to ‘plug the gap’.
The bottom-line for electricity and natural gas/LPG business customers is that they need to adapt to the reality of drastically increased prices, tight supply and generally adverse market conditions.
Please contact us if you have any questions on the above.
We’re thrilled to welcome back Euan Lamont to Total Utilities as an Account Executive. Euan’s return marks an exciting chapter for us as we continue to innovate and expand our offerings in the utility sector.
Euan first joined us in January 2018 as a Sales Manager for the Lower North Island, a role he held until mid-2022.
During this period, he focused on energy procurement, working closely with our Auckland team to deliver comprehensive services to our clients.
Experience & Expertise
Before joining Total Utilities the first time around, Euan gained significant experience working with an electricity retailer, where he collaborated with us on various tenders and procurement projects. His deep understanding of the energy market made his transition to Total Utilities seamless, and he quickly became a key player in our sales team.
In his new role as Account Executive, Euan will leverage his extensive background in all things energy and utilities, coupled with his recent experience in B2B (business to business) SaaS (Software as a Service), to drive our product offerings.
Driving Innovation
Since 2022, he has been involved in the B2B SaaS sector, focusing on compliance and efficiency-based solutions. “The shift to software sales has been a fascinating journey so far,” he shares. “I’m excited to bring this expertise back to Total Utilities and help our clients navigate these new tools.”
Euan’s return comes at a pivotal time for Total Utilities, as we continue to integrate innovative solutions like Panoramic Power – a real-time energy monitoring system, and Net0 – our advanced AI-first carbon management tool, into our comprehensive services. Both products have been instrumental in helping businesses manage their energy use and carbon emissions.
Euan’s ability to build strong relationships, solve problems, and understand customer needs, will be crucial as we navigate these opportunities.
Game-Changing AI Services
Euan is particularly excited about the potential of Net0 and Panoramic Power to revolutionise how businesses manage their energy use and carbon emissions. “These aren’t just ‘rearview-mirror’ tools for tracking data,” he explains. “They use AI and machine learning to help companies anticipate and proactively manage their energy consumption and carbon footprint. It’s a game-changer.”
As Euan settles back into the team, he says he is eager to contribute to our strategic growth and help our clients achieve their goals. “I’m looking forward to helping our clients reach new heights in their sustainability journeys. Whether it’s enhancing efficiency, cutting costs, or driving innovation, there’s so much potential, and I’m excited to be part of it,” he adds.
Please join us in welcoming Euan back to Total Utilities. We look forward to the innovative contributions he will undoubtedly bring to our clients and our team.
Want to contact Euan to discuss how Total Utilities can help your business with innovative energy and carbon management solutions? Email him at [email protected]
New Zealand’s energy landscape is facing a perfect storm. With hydro storage at historic lows and natural gas production declining, energy prices are surging. As we turn to costly imported coal, the impact on electricity costs is significant. In the following article, Total Utilities Director Chris Hargreaves delves into these challenges and their implications for our energy future.
The New Zealand Electricity market relies heavily on hydroelectricity, which accounts for approximately 60% of total generation in most years. This is supplemented by other baseload generation sources that are available 24/7, including geothermal, natural gas and coal.
Despite New Zealand’s significant hydroelectric capacity, our water storage is limited, usually providing only six weeks of coverage, and often dropping below 30 days during winter. To address this, natural gas and coal are used to manage water storage and provide a top up to meet energy demand.
From a hydro storage perspective, May 2024 was the driest on record. And as of 22/07, total water storage has fallen to 31% of total capacity, which is around 55% of average levels for this time of year. In addition to this, our domestic production of natural gas has been steadily falling since 2018, meaning that natural gas is used less and less for electricity generation.
Why is this important? Because if natural gas is not available, we have to use coal. This carries a much higher marginal cost as we import coal from Indonesia, and costs associated with the emissions trading scheme are much higher than natural gas (for further insights on gas production and consumption and historical electricity risk curves check out Gas Industry Co and the Electricity Authority).
The Coal Cost Dilemma
While you might say, ‘great, we have an alternative fuel source to keep the lights on,’ the downside of using coal is that it sets the price of the electricity wholesale market and drives forward retail energy contract pricing higher for large commercial and industrial customers. Lower priced forms of electricity generation such as hydroelectricity then carry a scarcity premium as demand remains strong in a time when supply is extremely constrained.
The Electricity Authority has for several years stated that we have a competitive retail market environment. As of June 2024, there are 47 electricity trading companies in the New Zealand market. Most of these only supply residential customers or are extremely niche players supplying few electricity connections.
Big Four’s Influence: Market Control and Pricing
There are four major generators in New Zealand: Contact Energy, Genesis Energy, Mercury Energy and Meridian Energy (the big four). These four together produce about 90% of New Zealand’s electricity and supply around 80% of the retail market. They hold significant power( no pun intended!) in dictating terms to smaller independent retailers that do not have generation assets.
These independent retailers face challenges in securing competitive prices for upstream energy hedging to offer their customers. They must also meet substantial prudential cover requirements with the market, which increases with rising wholesale prices. This often means that when wholesale prices escalate, the independent generators are unable to quote pricing to customers as they cannot cover prudential requirements, or they are unable to buy upstream hedging. In essence, the big four can dictate how big the independent retailers get by the way that generation supply is managed.
Over the last 10 years, New Zealand’s baseload generation capacity has declined. Genesis has mothballed part of Huntly power station, which can run on either natural gas or coal. Contact has decommissioned the gas fired generator at Otahuhu B and is now using the gas-fired baseload component of Stratford very sparingly. Similarly, Mercury has decommissioned the gas-fired Southdown power station in Penrose.
New generation has been extremely slow to come into the market, with generators blaming the uncertainty surrounding Tiwai, which has resulted in systemic price increases. This has led to Transpower issuing warnings for the last three winters that electricity generation is struggling to meet demand. The result of this was a blackout in Hamilton during 2021 and a near miss, this year.
Although wind and solar projects are increasing, their intermittent nature fails to provide the continuous coverage needed during dry years, leaving a gap created by the reduced gas supply.
The infrastructure commission states that we have a major deficit and that to meet forecast demand, generation needs to more than double over the next 30 years. This is going to cost a significant amount of money when energy prices are at record highs which businesses are already struggling to absorb. Read ‘How is our infrastructure tracking,’ by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission to find out more on this.
Coal will also be required in greater quantities and for much longer due to the forecast shortfall in gas production over the next 3 years.
MBIE markets manager Mike Hayward says,“New Zealand has used around 150 PJ of natural gas per year for the last two years. While New Zealand holds 8.7 years of natural gas in usable reserves, field operators only expect to extract up to 140 PJ each year for the next three years.” See this MBIE report for further details.
In 2017, we were procuring five-year fixed price contracts for large industrial customers at around $75/mWh (7.5c/kWh). Pricing obtained last week averaged $170/mWh for the period 01 Jan 2025 to 31 Dec 2029.
Investment Incentives: Why New Projects Are Stalled
However, with four major generator retailers controlling the delivery of significant new generation, there’s little incentive for them to invest in new projects. Instead, they continue to profit from long-paid-off assets.
Until competition emerges in the generation market, I struggle to see how the Electricity Authority can stand behind their claims of a competitive electricity sector.
Act Now: Contact Total Utilities
Navigate the changing energy landscape with confidence. Contact Total Utilities to explore customised solutions and implement an energy management plan today!
