New Zealand's power capacity 'under stress'

The recent electricity shortages prove New Zealand needs to invest in more power, says the country's largest power generator.

Meridian Energy spokesman Alan Seay said the fact that the country had to draw on all available generation plants during the extreme cold weather last month is a sign the system's capacity is under stress.

"On June 19, when a new national peak demand record of 6630 megawatts (MW) was set, the only Meridian plant not committed was one of the six Benmore units that had been undergoing major scheduled maintenance since May 25," he said.

Mr Seay said New Zealand's peak demand record of 6513MW set in August 2004 was raised three times last month - 6630MW on June 19, 6676MW on June 27 and 6748MW on June 29.

This year was proving to be extremely challenging for managing Meridian's generating stations, as the new peak demand records coincided with record low inflows to the Waitaki system.

"Nobody should be under any delusion that this country urgently needs to get more generation and transmission capacity in place and quickly.

"We have been saying for some time that the day of reckoning is coming, and it is closer than many people realise."

- NZPA