Power prices dip as lakes climb

By CHRIS DANIELS energy writer

Heavy rainfall in the South Island during the past week has pushed hydro lake levels up - and wholesale power prices are the lowest since January.

There is now 2784 gigawatt hours of electricity stored in hydro lakes, which is 98 per cent of average for this time of year. Inflows for the past week were nearly a third higher than average.

The last two weeks of rain has justified the decision of an industry group to stop a nationwide advertising and public relations campaign to encourage power savings of 10 per cent.

Patrick Strange, co-ordinator of the Winter Taskforce group, said the job of the group was not yet over, despite the rain.

It would meet again this week, and while the national advertising campaign had been over for two weeks, he did not expect the "riskmeter" to be further downgraded.

"If you wind it back you're almost into normal country. It might stop raining."

There was a need to get right through summer and next winter, so it was still necessary to be prudent with power.

People were still saving 4 per cent to 6 per cent. Since the savings campaign began, power usage had only twice topped the levels of the same time last year.

Meridian spokesman Alan Seay said the generator was "running hard", with high inflows across the South Island. The state-owned generator owns the biggest hydro stations, including Manapouri and dams on the Waitaki River.