Upston Louise: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Upston Louise: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 29 June 2010. Volume:664;Page:12241. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 I am thrilled to be able to stand and speak on Mighty River Power during this debate on State-owned enterprises. Mighty River Power is a significant organisation in the Taupo electorate. It is an integrated energy generation trading retailing and metering business and a successful one at that. 
I start by coming back to a point that the Hon Trevor Mallard made in his address on Meridian Energy. He talked about the fact that power generation is a particularly complex issue. He conceded that in the 9 years of the Labour Government it did not get it right. That explains a lot. It explains the 70 percent increase in power prices which is four times the rate of inflation. 
Mighty River Power’s generation capacity is significant as it is the hydroelectricity generator on the Waikato River. It has nine dams located along the Waikato River as well as geothermal plants—one of which I want to speak about in more detail—in Taupo and the Bay of Plenty regions the Southdown cogeneration station and also bioenergy production. It is also looking at developing a wind generation programme. 
New Zealanders want their State-owned enterprises to do well and we are fortunate to have as Minister for State Owned Enterprises Simon Power who is demanding that they do better than they have done. They are doing well they are providing dividends to the Crown and the Minister gave as an example what Mighty River Power has delivered to the Crown in terms of a dividend. But there is always the opportunity to do better. We are an aspirational Government. We are aspirational for our State-owned enterprises and we are aspirational for all New Zealanders. The opportunity to do better is always there. 
More than 90 percent of Mighty River Power’s generation now is renewable which is very much in line with where we are heading as a country against a background of issues around climate change. If we look at Mercury Energy’s performance against that of its competitors we see that it has been making gains in its market share which is fantastic news. It is great for the organisation great for New Zealanders and great for the Crown. 
I want to look at the exciting year that Mighty River Power has had and I want to talk specifically about the Nga Awa Purua geothermal power station. I was fortunate to be at the opening of that station with the Prime Minister recently. The Nga Awa Purua power station is a joint venture with the Tauhara North No. 2 Trust. It is a great example of a partnership with the local iwi. It was launched only a matter of weeks ago. It generates 140 megawatts and powers 140000 homes—the equivalent of Taupo Rotorua Hamilton and Tauranga—which is pretty impressive for a power station that uses renewable energy. Its total budget was $430 million. Of course it was opened under this Government and I am proud of the achievements of this National-led Government. One of the highlights of this power station is that it has the largest single-shaft geothermal turbine in the world with a total of 9 kilometres of pipeline. New Zealand is leading the world in geothermal electricity generation and I am proud of that. The other thing that is important to note in terms of Mighty River Power is that the construction carried out during this period played an important part in buffering the Taupo community through the recession because of the number of employees that Mighty River Power has managed to keep throughout this time. It does not end there. In terms of geothermal development the next power station off the blocks is Ngatamariki Geothermal Power Station and the resource consents are under way for that. We are looking forward to yet another geothermal power station opening in the Taupo electorate. 
I want to talk about some of the challenges that Mighty River Power faces. One of them is the fact that the recent drought has had a significant impact on the ability of its nine hydroelectricity power stations and dams along the Waikato River to generate electricity. Might River Power has done a lot in terms of giving information to the public about the lake levels and their impact on it. Thank you.