Tisch Lindsay: Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tisch Lindsay: Electricity Industry Reform Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18558. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 I rise to share with members some of the interesting points that have come out of this debate and out of this bill. I first acknowledge the support of the advisers who are here today because we have had a number of bills including the amendment to Commerce Act and the other power and energy ones and from a layperson’s point of view it is difficult to get involved with and come to grips with some of these complex issues. I must say we have been impressed by them and certainly I have been very mindful of their expertise. So I thank them on behalf of the National Party team.  
I refer to clause 5 “Interpretation” and I will look at the definition “renewable energy source”. It relates to a comment I made in the second reading about power generation which Peter Brown also picked up on—on the amount of generation in megawatts that had been brought online alongside those plants that had been decommissioned. If we look at clause 5 we see that “renewable energy source” means “solar wind hydro geothermal biomass tidal wave ocean current sources or any other energy source that occurs naturally and the use of which will not permanently deplete New Zealand’s energy sources …”. I will not go through the rest of the definition but in essence we are talking about renewable energy sources and the genesis of this bill is about using as much renewable energy as we can.  
So it was of interest when I spoke in the second reading to note that over the 9 years of the previous National Government 1600 megawatts of new generation came online yet over the last 8 years under Labour less than 700 megawatts has come online. I will expand on that point because it is relevant and when we look at renewable energy sources we want to see where the new generation has come from. We have those that have been commissioned and I will start back in 2000 when Contact Energy at Otahuhu B whose fuel type is gas had a capacity of 380 megawatts. I will not go through them all but Contact Energy at Te Rapa in the year 2000 which is gas had 44 megawatts.  
Just so there is a reference point here this information comes from the Ministry of Economic Development’s  
Energy Data File  
of June 2008 at page 132. That is the source of the information just in case some members may think I am making it up which I am not. That is the source. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: That’s unusual. 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: Well I am not making it up and the member will have an opportunity to articulate the Government’s point of view if he wants to take a call.  
Here is another one under gas—Genesis Power at the Huntly project in 2004 had 40 megawatts. I was fortunate to be there for the commissioning when that came online. Also here we have Pan Pac in 2005. But let us look at those of geothermal fuel - type: Todd Energy at Ngawha 2008 had 13 megawatts; Contact Energy at Wairakei had 20 megawatts; Mighty River Power at Kawerau in 2008 had 90 megawatts; Meridian Energy at Manapouri 2007 which is hydro had 130 megawatts. With TrustPower we have a wind one of 93 megawatts; Meridian Energy at White Hill in 2007 whose fuel type is wind had 58 megawatts; Genesis e3p which I mentioned before 2007 whose fuel type is gas had 385 megawatts.  
When we are looking at the whole essence of this bill it is to say that we want to have renewable energy sources. It is really interesting to see where over the last few years—in fact from the year 2000 through to 2008—the actual generation has come from. While there are new plants and what has come on stream there have also been those plants that have been decommissioned. Since 2000—once again the source is the same source—Contact Energy in New Plymouth had plant decommissioned in 2000.