By Mark Reynolds
This week's cold snap has pushed up prices on the wholesale electricity market.
The average price for power in the Upper North Island rose to 4.88c a kilowatt hour on Tuesday, up from the 2.8c per kilowatt hour it had previously averaged throughout July. The wholesale electricity price for all of the country rose to 3.98c per kilowatt hour this week, up from a 2.5c average for most of the month.
Electricity traders said the rise in prices was a combination of colder conditions and constraints on transferring power from South Island hydro power stations through to North Island consumers.
For the year so far, North Island wholesale power prices were averaging about 4c per kilowatt hour.
The wholesale electricity price is, over time, an indicator for likely movement in retail power prices. But competition in the retail power market is likely to keep any price movement for households and businesses in check this year.
Chill sends power prices up
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