Merry Christmas from the BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC) team, David, Debbie and Tina. Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading our newsletter, we hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it. Find our last energy sector update for the year below. We’ll be back with our next update in February 2020.

Today, the BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC), along with businesses, academia, government and non-government organisations will launch two plausible scenarios of New Zealand's energy future to 2060.

Earlier this month, the 24th World Energy Congress (WEC24) took place in Abu Dhabi with the theme “Energy for Prosperity”. The BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC) and its Young Energy Profesionals Network (YEPN) were joining the four-day interactive programme debating critical issues currently faced by the global energy industry leaders. The event was attended by over 15,000 people, including 4000 delegates, 250 speakers, 70 ministers and 500 CEOs.

New Zealand stays in Global top 10 for energy balance and is the only non-EU country to consistently rank in the global top 10 for balancing sustainability, affordability and security in energy. This result is testament to a well-functioning energy market, strong policies and active efforts in the energy transition. In a new evolution of the index, historic trends in each dimension are now compared to a baseline year - 2000 - to give a more in-depth picture of national policies.

Energy infrastructure assets are designed and built to last for decades. These assets do not exist and function in a vacuum. It is only natural that changes in technology, business models, and government policies will occur over their lifetime. Previously, these changes were simply an evolution of the existing mode of producing, delivering and consuming energy. What is happening today in the energy world is a paradigm shift, characterized by new values of sustainability, flexibility and affordability, enabled by a completely new way of producing, delivering, and consuming energy.

We are delighted to tell you that we have bid to host the 2021 World Energy Week here in Wellington. We will be competing against the World Energy Council (WEC) member committee from Kazakhstan. The voting process for all WEC member committees will open on 8 August and will close at the Executive Assembly plenary at the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi on 8 September. If successful, we will host one of the biggest Energy Conference from 1 to 4 November 2021.

Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies have experienced cycles of high expectations followed by impractical realities. This time around, however, falling renewable energy and fuel cell prices, stringent climate change requirements and the discrete involvement of China are step changes. The combination of these factors is leading to realistic potential for hydrogen’s role in the Grand Transition.

The Government will invest $27 million to set up a national clean energy centre in Taranaki to help lead New Zealand’s transition to a low carbon future, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday, 9 May 2019. The centre will look at the full range of emerging, clean energy options, such as offshore wind, solar batteries, carbon capture storage and hydrogen.

BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC) was pleased to have the opportunity to provide a submission to the Electricity Price Review Panel on its options paper, published on 20 February 2019. Overall, we support the Panel putting consumers at the heart of the electricity price review. The options paper outlines the importance for electricity prices to be fair and affordable for consumers, as well as efficient or competitive. We recognise that even with cost reflective, efficient prices, outcomes can emerge that are undesirable for some consumer groups. The full submission is now available on our webpage.

We were delighted to host the Minister of Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods at our annual 'state of the energy sector' briefing. The Minister discussed things like New Zealand's renewable energy strategy including its green hydrogen strategy, the electricity price review, general transition planning, Gas Act changes, process heat opportunities, resource strategy as well as the 2019 work programme.