KEY POINTS:
For the second year in a row hydro lake levels are below average heading into winter, but the concerns about electricity supply of 12 months ago are not being repeated.
Figures produced by electricity market administrator M-co show hydro lake storage was at 83 per cent of average yesterday. Hydro provides on average about 60 per cent of the country's electricity needs.
Inflows into the hydro lakes have largely been below average for most of this year, after a period of well above average inflows in November and December last year resulting from plentiful rainfall and snowmelt.
For the week to Monday the inflow was just 57 per cent of average.
Going into April 2006, hydro lake levels were at just 65 per cent of average, similar to those at the same time in 1992 when the country last faced a major power shortage.
But in 1992 water storage fell away sharply during April and May, in contrast to a year ago when water surged into the system during April.
Today Alan Seay, spokesman for state-owned electricity generator Meridian Energy, said that while hydro lake levels were being watched closely nothing was causing undue concern for now.
As well as hydro levels being better than they were a year ago, Genesis Energy's gas turbine e3p (for energy efficiency enhancement) project at Huntly was being commissioned.
"So we're quite considerably better off, both in terms of hydro storage and thermal supply than last year," Mr Seay said.
For the past two months the daily average price for electricity on the spot market has ranged between 4c and 8c per kilowatt hour, having risen from as low as 2c in mid-January.
That is well down from around 24c per kilowatt hour 13 months ago.
- NZPA
