KEY POINTS:
With hydro lakes full, the average wholesale electricity price paid to Contact Energy in the first three months of this year was less than half that of a year ago.
Last quarter's price was $43.25 a megawatt hour, compared with $115.83 in the first three months of last year, the company said yesterday in its quarterly operational report.
The lower prices reflected differences in hydro lake levels, which were above average at the end of March this year, compared with 65 per cent of average at the end of March last year.
Contact's generation for the first three months of 2007 was 2388 gigawatt hours, 17 per cent less than a year earlier. Hydro generation was 862 GWh compared with 737 GWh, reflecting higher inflows into the Clutha River catchment.
Geothermal generation was up 7 per cent to 467 GWh, while thermal generation was down 38 per cent to 1059 GWh.
Contact Energy's 10 power stations include hydro stations at the Clyde Dam and Roxburgh, in Central Otago, the Wairakei geothermal station near Taupo and gas-fuelled stations in Otahuhu and Taranaki. It produces about 25 per cent of the country's electricity.
Shares in Contact Energy, slightly more than half-owned by Origin Energy of Australia, closed down 13c yesterday at $8.98.
While hydro lake levels may have been good at the start of the year they have since fallen and are now at 73 per cent of average for the time of year. They have recently dropped to below the level at the same time last year.
Early last year concern mounted that an electricity crunch was on the way as hydro lake levels tracked those of 1992 when the country last faced a major power shortage. But after April it rained heavily and the problem was averted.
Levels are again falling further but the industry appears less concerned than early last year, with one reason being that Genesis Energy's gas turbine project at Huntly is being commissioned.
- NZPA
