Power use growing faster in South Island

North Island residents may use more power than their southern neighbours but consumption in the South Island is increasing much faster than the northern rate.

Releasing new figures this week, energy consultant Brian Leyland said the South Island's growth over the past three years was 3 per cent compared with 1.9 per cent in the north. He attributes it to the increase of dairying in the South Island.

The kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of energy equivalent to one kilowatt of power used for an hour. One gigawatt hour is one million kilowatt hours.

Gigawatt-hour demand in New Zealand 2002-03:

North Island: 22,595 (62.4 per cent of total demand)

South Island: 13,598 (37.6 per cent of total demand)

Supply source in 2002-03 in gigawatt-hours:

National grid: 33,047

Non-grid generation: 3146

Growth of demand between 1999 and 2003:

North Island: 1.89 per cent

South Island: 3.07 per cent(source: Brian Leyland)