|
|
David Palmer talks to a man with a passion for renewable energy – and who’s well placed to push its development here.
Except this boy has been around for sixty-one years. Mike Underhill has been EECA chief executive since May 2007. “I’ve always been fascinated with electricity and what it can do. It began when I was six and I got this electric train set. But it wasn’t playing with the trains so much that got me, as what you could do with the electricity. Amazing things happened when you touched two wires together.” He says the Wimshurst Machine, “Was the best Christmas present I’ve had for many years. It’s fantastic, seeing static electricity being produced.” For Underhill his fascination for employing electricity has found a natural partner in a desire to not waste it. A reputation based on this concern has given him a long history with EECA. He was appointed to the EECA board in October 1995, serving two terms before leaving in October 2003. He was chairman for the second term, from June 2000. On his departure the then Energy Minister Pete Hodgson paid tribute to his “enthusiasm and vision”. Underhill’s career is based on an engineering degree and a master’s degree in commerce. He was always going to study electrical engineering, but Canterbury University had just made it possible for students to cross-credit from the engineering to the commerce degree. “It was good for an engineer, because we tend to be very technically focused, but this introduced you to the wider picture, it gave you a context.” This grasp of context informs Underhill’s understanding of EECA’s role. There’s no use trying to inspire people with abstract notions if you don’t address their real-life concerns. Yes, everyone wants to save the world and help the nation, but in the meantime there are bills to pay and businesses to run. He notes that while awareness of the need for energy efficiency is high among New Zealanders, practical take-up is lagging. “The response from businesses is usually, yes, energy is really important, but it’s Number Eight on the list of what’s giving them a headache today. They never have the time to get beyond Number Four.” He sees EECA’s goal as showing that energy efficiency offers personal benefits for little outlay of time or money. In the home, he says, it can improve the quality of life, while in business it can lead to immediate cost reductions. After graduating from university, Underhill gained the four or five years’ practical experience required then to be a registered engineer working for the NZED in Wellington and on power stations and transmission networks in Hamilton. Then came an enjoyable and personally useful four years in Samoa on the Volunteer Service Abroad scheme where he helped develop the nation’s energy network. “During the week I was doing the work of a design engineer, but on weekends I’d go out with my family to the villages and get my hands dirty fixing generators. With so much to do and so little expertise available, you couldn’t get too specialised; you had to get your head around everything.” Returning home in 1979, Underhill rejoined the NZED in time for the Think Big projects. He worked on the third pot line expansion to the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, and on the Fletcher-Alusuisse smelter at Aramoana. He subsequently became the NZED’s commercial engineer, pricing electricity to the power companies. All this exposed him while still a junior engineer to levels above the coal face: commercial, economic, managerial, all the way up to political. This experience, says Underhill, made, “my horizons much bigger”. He joined Energy Direct as the design engineer and worked his way up to became chief executive of the company and its successor TransAlta NZ. He guided Energy Direct through many of the electricity reforms and transformed it to a company listed on the stock exchange. Following deregulation, when the lines part of the industry separated from the energy part, he chose to follow the lines. In 1999 he joined WEL Networks in Hamilton as CEO. Underhill has been a chief executive now for some 20 years. But it is his role in EECA which aligns most closely to his beliefs. In fact he really took it on out of passion: both for energy and for family – his grandchildren in Wellington were calling him south. Underhill seeks some fundamental changes. “New Zealand has a supply-fixated view of energy. If we have an energy problem the prevailing view has been let’s build more power stations or let’s import more oil. But it’s pretty obvious that if it’s cheaper to invest in energy efficiency than in new supply sources, we should invest in energy efficiency. It also allows the often forgotten consumer to participate in the energy sector.” “Development used to be led by engineers and scientists. One of the things that has held New Zealand back is this leadership transferred to professional managers often from accounting, economic or legal backgrounds. They watch things happen as opposed to making things happen. I want to see a dynamic approach to energy led by those with the ideas and skills to build and get things done.” Investment in energy efficiency covers a wide spectrum, he says. At the low-cost end are regulatory measures to achieve efficiency in energy-using products. Higher on the price scale come promoting behaviour changes and developing energy-saving technology. At the high-cost peak are longterm, nation-shaping strategies concerning transportation, land use and urban form. And the tricky part is, he says, all these have to go on at the same time. For Underhill, though, “The issue of renewable energy is critical. I think we have the potential to be largely renewable energy based. I believe New Zealand is uniquely placed because of our bio energy, marine and wind energy potentials. Per capita, we have more renewable energy potential than any other country.” Generally New Zealand is too small to make much of an impact on global markets, but Underhill sees our natural resources, together with the flexible mindset attainable in small young nations, as offering “a fantastic potential for our export market” by utilising renewable energy. He is encouraged by the fact that the major political parties are now committed to energy efficiency and renewables. While the previous government was strong on sustainability, he says the current government’s focus on economic growth is compatible, since healthy business needs a secure and affordable energy supply. “So there is a common theme between the governments regarding the importance of energy efficiency and renewables that reaffirms what we at EECA intend to achieve.” Within EECA Underhill sees himself as, “an enthusiast, a bit of an opportunist, and a can-doer”. “I want our people to be more aware and street-smart, with none of that bureaucratic remoteness. I want us to have the attitude that, yes, this will happen. “New Zealand has unique attributes which we can exploit to our benefit in the global future. I think energy will be a major part of this.
Energy NZ Vol.4 No.2 March-April 2010 |
Late last year Mike Underhill was given a Wimshurst electrostatic generating machine for Christmas. The contraption features two large disks and an enticing array of wires and componentry. Turning a handle produces dramatic displays of sparks and also generates 90,000-odd volts. A great gift for mechanically minded boys.