Water and Energy Abstracts
Year : 2004, Volume : 14, Issue : 1
First page : ( 21) Last page : ( 22)
Print ISSN : 0021-1672.

48. New Zealand's Experience with Reform and an Electricity “Market”

Leyland Bryan

(Proceedings, Hydro 2003, Vol. I, Croatia, pp. 259–263).

Abstract

New Zealand is about the same size as the British Isles and has a population of four million. The peak demand is in the region of 6000 MW and the annual power consumption is about 40,000 GWh. About 65% of New Zealand's electricity is generated by hydro power stations and the remainder by geothermal, gas and coal fired power stations. There is a 1000 MW direct current link between the two islands. Most of the hydro power generation is in the South Island and fed by large natural lakes with storage equivalent to about 15% of annual consumption. If there is a drought, the storage declines very rapidly and can go from full to virtually empty in two months or so. Most of the load is in the North Island. In years with normal rainfall low cost South Island hydro power is exported to the North Island. During a drought thermal reserve stations in the North Island need to run to meet the shortfall and also send power to the South Island to manage the declining storage.

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Keywords

Hydro power stations, Geothermal, Gas and coal fired power stations, Direct current link, Storage equivalent, Drought, Rainfall, Shortfall.

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