By JAMES GARDINER
A warning of potential power shortages north of Taupo this summer has the Government working to prevent another financial and social disaster.
National grid operator Transpower says that as the level of Lake Taupo drops, the possibility of supplies running out is rising.
And for the first time, ministers have acknowledged that they are taking the matter seriously.
The Minister for Auckland Issues, Judith Tizard, said yesterday she had received a briefing from Energy Minister Pete Hodgson and would hold further talks with power companies and local authorities.
"What I want to know is what are the possibilities and what are the options if the worst-case scenario is the one that happens, because the reality is we've seen it happen twice in the past 10 years." Those occasions were in 1992 and 1998.
Ms Tizard said Mr Hodgson had told her of Transpower's concern, and said it would be discussed at his weekly meeting with officials overseeing the industry.
"He wants to see what projections they have for rainfall and summer temperatures. I'll be talking to him [today]."
Lake Taupo feeds the Waikato River, which has eight hydro stations.
The river also supplies cooling water to the 1000-megawatt thermal station at Huntly. In summer 1998, the river got so hot that the power station had to be partly shut.
Taupo harbourmaster Doug Brown said the lake was lower than at any time in the past six years and the usual August rains had not come.
Yesterday, it was 29 per cent full. The percentages for the same day each year back to 1995 were 46, 86, 31, 86 and 64.
Mr Brown said the level was at the point where some boatramps would be unusable because they were too high above the water and larger boats risked running aground.
In July, when the Herald first reported the possibility of supply problems caused by lack of water and the serious breakdown of Contact Energy's big new power station in South Auckland, Otahuhu B, Government officials said they were monitoring the situation but had "no concerns at this stage."
Industry analysts say that even taking into account the dry weather, Taupo is now lower than it would have been had the Electricity Corporation been kept intact. Because the corporation was divided to create Contact Energy in 1996, then split a further three ways last year, there are four competing generators.
Genesis runs Huntly and the two hydro stations on the Tongariro, which runs into Taupo, while Mighty River Power has the Waikato hydros.
Ms Tizard said the loss of coordination across the electricity industry was one of the concerns Mr Hodgson and many others had raised in Opposition when National split ECNZ and forced local line networks to quit electricity retailing.
"It's an early warning, and we're taking it seriously. As a minister with responsibility for Auckland, I'm advising the Prime Minister and Minister of Energy that I want to know what's happening and what steps can be taken."
She had also asked the chairman of Auckland lines company Vector, Wayne Brown, for an assurance that the network would not suffer a repeat of the cable blowouts that plunged the central city into crisis in summer 1998. She said she had been told all was well on that front, but was awaiting more details.
Asked whom people should blame if the lights went out, Ms Tizard suggested that "perhaps putting [former Energy Minister] Max Bradford in a cage from the highest non-operating pylon might be an answer."
Since the election, the Coalition has held an inquiry into the electricity industry, received its report and spent two months deciding what to do next.
The South Island drought in 1992 and the 1998 Auckland blackouts had an economic impact that was measurable in reduced GDP.
Summer power crisis looming for North
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