Power, gas and petrol prices outstrip inflation

Electricity, gas and petrol prices are all still climbing much faster than overall inflation, new statistics show.

Electricity prices for households increased 1.1 per cent in the September quarter and were 7.8 per cent higher than 12 months earlier.

Commercial electricity prices rose 1.3 per cent in the September 2005 quarter and were 10.6 per cent up on the September quarter last year.

The consumer price index rose 3.4 per cent for the year to September.

The quarterly energy statistics were released yesterday by Statistics New Zealand.

Household electricity prices have been rising for the past four years.

The price of liquid petroleum gas was 6.4 per cent higher in the September 2005 quarter than in the June quarter and 10.2 per cent higher than the September quarter last year.

The price of natural gas for household users rose 9.4 per cent between the September quarter last year and the September 2005 quarter.

Petrol showed the biggest hikes as retail prices jumped 13.1 per cent in the September quarter from the June quarter and were 20.5 per cent higher than in the September quarter 2004.

Prices for alternative motor fuels, primarily diesel, rose 13.1 per cent in the September quarter and were 27.5 per cent higher than the September quarter last year.

Meanwhile dry weather has forced the highest recorded use of carbon dioxide-emitting coal and gas-fired power plants in the September quarter 2005. This underlines New Zealand's reliance on coal and gas-fired power plants when inflows into the hydro lakes are below average.

New Zealand's only dry year standby power plant run on diesel swung into action this week because of concern over falling hydro lake levels.

Thermal electricity generation for the September 2005 quarter was the highest since the energy data series began in 1960.

It was 53 per cent higher in the September 2005 quarter than in the September 2004 quarter, and higher than the previous record level of thermal generation in September 2001, during the winter power crisis.

Hydro generation, the main renewable form of electricity generation, fell in the September quarter by more than 24 per cent.

Together, hydro and wind generation supplied 55 per cent of electricity in the September quarter, compared to 71 per cent in the September quarter last year.

Over ten years the mean contribution of hydro and wind generation to total production has been 63 per cent in the September quarter, which usually shows the highest level of city production.

Total electricity production in the September quarter 2005 was 2.3 per cent lower than 12 months earlier, when the level of electricity produced was highest ever for a quarter.

- nzpa