Until this week, Genesis Energy had steadfastly refused to discuss any future beyond 2030 for the coal and gas-fired plant. That's just changed.
To most New Zealanders, the twin stacks of the Huntly power station are a Kiwiana icon. But to the people of that community, the electricity generator is a family, and a future.
Yvonne Anscombe runs the town's community patrol. Her neighbour works at the power station. Her friend's husband worked there. And when the local Lions Club was fundraising to buy a new car for the community patrol this year, Genesis came to the party with a $10,000 donation.
"Genesis are part of our community," Anscombe says. "It's been a big employer over the years. We're not stupid, we understand the climate issues. But we would be supportive of anything that kept the jobs in Huntly."
So today, locals are welcoming news that Genesis Energy is embarking on trials of wood biomass in one of the plant's 250MW Rankine units, which usually burn coal or gas. They acknowledged that if the big local employer was to have any future, they knew it would have to transition to renewables.
Genesis reported its full-year results to investors this week and afterwards, chief executive Marc England detailed the Huntly plans in an interview with Newsroom.
The plant's four Rankine units have been in the headlines this month, after ministers questioned why Genesis was not able to power up an extra one to meet a surge in demand on Waikato's coldest night of the year. Tens of thousands of homes lost power, sparking a series of inquiries.
When all four of the Rankine units are running, locals say they burn through a phenomenal 10,000 tonnes of coal a day. At present there's just one running but even so, the country's increased reliance on coal this year has bumped up power prices and carbon emissions for the entire country.
"We may conclude that Genesis wants to go it alone on this, or we could conclude that it could happen with some Government support."
– Marc England, Genesis Energy
Few would disagree, that's unsustainable.
Marc England said the company was now embarking on three trials. The first is testing the technical capability of the furnace to burn the biomass – sawdust compacted into pellets – and run the turbine at a reasonable rate.
The second is working with consultants to investigate the supply chain of biofuels (or biomass) like forestry waste. "There's a lot of coal boilers out there, industrial ones too, that people want to convert to pellets," he said. "Right now there isn't the supply of them so one of the questions we want to address is, what's it going to take to create that industry?"
The third study is into the longevity of the 35-year-old Rankine units, and whether with the right maintenance, the company can keep them running beyond the previous horizon. "We had never assumed previously that they would run beyond 2030, but we're now looking at whether they plausibly could. Because if we're going to invest in biomass and long term supply chain, they need to last longer."
For the future of New Zealand's energy security, it's critical the country be able to deliver more power out of the North Island. For technical reasons, any power that is sent up from the South Island hydro lakes over the Cook Strait cable must be balanced by power generated in the North Island.
So this week, Meridian announced plans to procure a 100MW battery – that could be part of the solution. And finding a more sustainable future for the Huntly plant would be another.
"We're doing this partly for our customers, and partly to contribute to the NZ Battery Project, to provide some alternatives to Onslow. We believe that putting all our eggs in the South Island basket is quite risky."
– Marc England
England said his company wanted to contribute to MBIE's NZ Battery Project to future-proof the country's electricity supply. And he didn't believe the proposal for a big pumped hydro plant at Lake Onslow, down south, was sufficient. More generation was needed in the North Island.
"We're doing this partly for our customers, and partly to contribute to the NZ Battery Project, to provide some alternatives to Onslow. We believe that putting all our eggs in the South Island basket is quite risky.
"We may conclude that Genesis wants to go it alone on this, or we could conclude that it could happen with some Government support."
"We see Huntly power station as a critical piece of infrastructure in a really well-located part of the country. It was built for a purpose, and it's located near a river, near a gas pipeline, with good access roads, near the highest demand centre in New Zealand, with people in the vicinity who can work at the plant. So it's a good location compared to some that are very remote.
"So we're reviewing all possibilities to ensure Huntly has a long and viable future as New Zealand's primary back-up source of energy."
Waikato District mayor Allan Sanson welcomed the trials. "My memory is long enough, looking out the window of my home at the chimneys, is that under full steam the four Rankines could burn 10,000 tonne of coal a day, at full generation," he said.
He said Genesis had also been looking at waste-to-energy, but it didn't generate enough heat. So wood pellets made from forestry waste would be a great solution.
"Huntly's known for its power station. It's a pretty major landmark – when you come across the top of the Bombays what you see is the two cherry-topped chimneys. And it is important to the Huntly economy. There are still a lot of local people that work on site.
"People from all over New Zealand say, I hear the station's closing next year. And I say, Huntly station is too important. That furore when the lights went off across the North Island this month, because Huntly wasn't at full capacity, it just shows how important Huntly is to New Zealand's generation and, more importantly, it's the only one they can crank up at a rapid speed of knots."
