Major energy users grapple with very high power prices (2024)

Major energy users are grappling with extremely high power prices and one timber company has stopped operating to consider if it can keep going.

Since September 2021, wholesale prices have risen from around $100 per megawatt hour (MWh) to an average of around $700 per MWh this week.

Winstone Pulp International (WPI) has paused work for 14 days at its two operational sites, Tangiwai Sawmill and Karioi Pulpmill, located between Ruapehu's Ohakune and Waiōuru on State Highway 49.

Chief executive Mike Ryan said the company was thinking about its future now that energy costs had risen from 15 percent of total production to in excess of 40 percent.

He said the volatile power market in New Zealand was challenging and the business had had to adapt.

"We can't pass these increases onto our customers because this is a New Zealand issue, and we sell into a commodity market where the price is the price.

"As a business, we've invested tens of millions into CAPEX to improve production and energy efficiency. The team's hard work has seen us significantly improve production capacity, while at the same time reducing our energy use by 20-30 percent for every ton produced."

Ryan said WPI also had a policy of maintaining a high level of energy price hedging to manage the risk of sharp price increases but that was no longer possible.

"As these arrangements have come up for renewal, the cost of replacing them has been unaffordable in the context of remaining globally competitive.

"Realistically, no hedging policy or future efficiency improvements will offset a 600 percent increase in input costs that shows no sign of abating."

Government intervention and/or a material increase in energy generation was needed to bring prices down long term and without that the options for WPI were limited, he said.

Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton said the Winstone Pulp Mill was crucial to New Zealand's overall economic health, and especially the North Island economy.

The mill is the largest employer in the Ruapehu District.

He told Checkpoint he was blindsided by the announcement and he felt for the families affected.

Kirton said he was not blaming a particular government but past governments in general had not taken proper leadership in the sector to resolve.

"I think it's previous governments' fault the fact that we've got an energy company or infrastructure that hasn't grown up - my understanding is that we need twice the infrastructure needed to cope with the needs of our country.

"We're a victim, in the Ruapehu for example, we're a victim of not only losing our jobs and the like, we're talking about real life here, this company is falling over because of previous policies, and no fault, as I understand it, of this particular company, it's just the infrastructure costs."

The energy prices needed to be driven down in some way, he said.

"We just can't continue, as a nation, to actually just let these businesses fall over because of energy. Goodness gracious, we've got some of the best resources in the world, when you consider the water that flows through our district and also through the country, if we can't manage that, like we have done in the past, then we're letting ourselves down."

Major Electricity Users Group searches for answers

The association representing big energy users is conducting an investigation into what is driving high power prices because no one else will.

Major Electricity Users Group chairperson John Harbord said the government and the Electricity Authority had not been willing to get to the bottom of the problem.

"There's lots of theories... but at no point really have we had a really robust look at it and the confidence that the regulator or the government's going to do so is so low that the Major Electricity Users Group is in the process of actually commissioning some analysis of their own because no one else is doing it.

"Hopefully that will inform the issues about what's behind these high prices and what some of the options are to fix them. I think one thing we don't need is a knee jerk reaction or rush to a solution before we really identify what's the driver behind it."

Harbord said so far WPI was its only member to have temporarily stopped operations but that did not mean others were not acting with caution.

"Major users are constantly reviewing the wholesale electricity price, what they're manufacturing and how much they're manufacturing. In some cases, production is certainly being reduced.

"We're talking about the country's largest exporters and they're reducing the amount of product they're making for export, which means as a country, we're all worse off as a result."

He said at the moment New Zealand was not an attractive investment option, with the cost of power twice that of Australia where prices averaged around $80 to $90 AUD per MWh on Monday.

RNZ has contacted Energy Minister Simeon Brown for comment.