Power-hungry north sets a record

Electricity use in the upper North Island is soaring, says Transpower, with demand reaching record levels on Tuesday.

At 5.30pm, demand for power north of Huntly reached 1955 megawatts, beating the previous record of 1947MW last August 17.

Transpower, the state-owned enterprise that owns and maintains the national power grid, said an "industry working group" had been set up to monitor and plan for power demand.

This group had agreed that demand was likely to peak around 1990MW, but it was still prudent to plan for a level of 2060MW.

The maximum electricity supply for the region is 2130MW, according to Transpower.

Auckland energy network company Vector told Energy Minister Trevor Mallard this year that it thinks power cuts could hit the region as early as 2007 if any part of the system, such as a power station, became unavailable for any length of time.

Mr Mallard rejected this outlook, saying fears of 2007 power cuts were "well off the mark".

Transpower will be hoping that news of surging demand coupled with the fears expressed by Vector will help it to gain support for power pylons it wants to build through the Waikato.

It says the $500 million, 200km line is needed by 2010 to avoid power cuts in the upper North Island.

Electricity Commissioner Roy Hemmingway has begun public consultation on the plan and will make a decision by the middle of next year.