KEY POINTS:
Hydro lake levels have lifted slightly, bringing a small amount of relief for the electricity sector even as cold and stormy weather sweeping the country raised demand.
As consumers are urged to save power to ensure supplies remain secure this winter, above average inflows for much of the past week gave hydro storage a small boost.
In its weekly market summary, published today, M-co said lake levels were up to 58 per cent of average by yesterday, having been at 55 per cent a week earlier and down to 49 per cent 2-1/2 weeks before.
Inflow rates got as high as 123 per cent of average on Saturday, and dropped below 100 per cent only once during the past week.
Spot market prices remained high but below levels reached in the late May spike, when the price got up to 44.06c.
At the North Island reference point of Haywards, the price peak during the past week was 31.37c per kilowatt hour on Wednesday, well up on the 9.21c a year earlier.
- NZPA
