Summary
Security of Supply
National hydro storage bucked the rising trend observed at the end of last year and decreased this week to 112% of average for the time of year (87% of full). This was the result of little to no rain events since the start of the year in both islands.
North Island storage decreased 10 percentage points to 118% of the historical average, and South Island storage decreased by five percentage points to 110% of the historical average.
NIWA have announced that La Nina conditions have strengthened over December. This means increased likelihood of normal to below average rainfall in the Hydro catchment areas over the summer months. For more detail click here.
Weekly Demand
National weekly demand was 744 GWh; an increase of 45 GWh (six percent) on the previous week. This is a reflection of the end of the Christmas holiday period where the country begins to go back to normal operation.
After a slow start irrigation load at Ashburton has come online and is presently averaging 2.9 GWh per day in January. This is the highest daily demand average since January 2020 which averaged 3.3 GWh per day.
This week's national demand peak was 5,367 MW and occurred at 5:30 pm on Tuesday 11 January.
Generation Mix
Total generation was 774 GWh this week, with hydro making up 57%, and thermal 12% of the mix. Wind generation comprised 8% of the mix this week.
Weekly Prices
The average price at Haywards was $143/MWh, up 42% from $101/MWh last week.
Prices at Haywards peaked at $351/MWh at 12.00pm on Tuesday 11 January.
Two instances of price separation were seen in Southland during the week.
The first occurring on the 11th of January due to a constraint on the Livingstone-Naseby line, which limited imports into the Southland region. This occurred due to an outage at Clyde-Roxburgh-1.
The second occurred on the 13th of January again due to a constraint on the Livingstone-Naseby line, this time limiting export from the region. This occurred due to an outage on Cromwell-Clyde Twizel-1.
HVDC
HVDC transfer has remained mainly northward this week, but with instances of southward transfer in the early hours of the mornings.
Fact of the Week
Wind speed peaked at 133 Km/h in Kelburn in Wellington on the 20th of December. Wind strength not seen since early 2018.
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