KEY POINTS:
Wholesale power prices are now 78 per cent below what they were a year ago due to brim full hydro lakes, electricity market operator M-Co said today.
Prices last week fell to 2.61c/kWh from 5.27c a month ago and 11.81 a year ago, M-Co said.
Hydro lake storage was 123 per cent of the average compared with 64 per cent a year ago.
North Island prices fell further over the past week as hydro lakes filled and demand remained steady, though prices in the South Island recovered from the previous week's plunge.
Prices at the North Island reference point of Haywards fell 10.2 per cent to an average $29.03 per megawatt hour (MWh) though at the South Island reference point of Benmore they rose 32.4 per cent to an average $26.40 per MWh.
The rise in South Island prices was explained as a rebound from the previous' week's sharp 53.7 per cent price fall.
"The prices are reverting to more of their long-term trend," an analyst said.
"The inflows have been levelling off somewhat, they're still pretty healthy, but they're at the stage where the South Island generators aren't having to flush so much water through."
Over the past two weeks power prices have fallen around 46 per cent in the North Island and by 49 per cent in the south as warmer weather, some heavy rainfalls and snow melt have filled hydro lakes.
"The prices we have at the moment, around the $35-$40 is what you'd expect for these sorts of conditions with fairly full lakes," the analyst said, adding prices were likely to stay around current levels for the forseeable future.
Around 70 per cent of New Zealand's electricity is produced by hydro power stations.
National demand was little changed at 100,367 MWh.
- REUTERS
