Electrical energy in New Zealand Totally Explained

Everything about Electrical Energy In New Zealand totally explained

Electrical energy in New Zealand is mainly derived from renewable energy sources such as from hydropower, geothermal power and increasingly wind energy. The 70% share of renewable energy sources makes New Zealand one of the most sustainable countries in terms of energy generation. However, energy demand is also still growing, by about 1.3-2.5% per year (depending on source, first figure from the New Zealand government, second figure from Greenpeace), and the country has been called one of the least energy efficient countries in the OECD.
New Zealand suffers from a geographical imbalance between energy production and consumption. The most substantial energy generation (both existing and as remaining potential) is located on the South Island and to a lesser degree in the central North Island, while the main demand (which is continuing to grow quickly) is in the northern North Island in the Auckland Region. This requires energy to be transmitted north through a power grid which is increasingly over its capacity. While initiatives are underway to build new transmission power lines, especially in the Waikato, there's substantial local protest against these initiatives.
Regulation and control of the energy industry is mainly within the portfolia of the Minister of Energy in the New Zealand Cabinet, though the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises and the Minister for Climate Change also have some powers by virtue of their positions and policy influence in the current Labour government.

History

Initial use of electricity in New Zealand was tied to mining, with Reefton on the West Coast becoming the first electrified city in 1888, while the first sizable power station was built for the Waihi gold mines at Horahora on the Waikato River. This set a precedent which was to dominate New Zealand's electricity generation, with hydropower becoming and remaining the dominant source. In 1930, the percentage was at 92%.
While industrial use quickly took off, it was only government programmes in the first two thirds of the 20th century that caused private demand to climb strongly as well. Especially the rural areas were beneficiaries of subsidies for electrical grid systems, where supply literally was provided to create demand, with an intention to modernise the countryside. The results were notable - in the 1920s, electricity use increased at a rate of 22% per year. In fact, the 'load building' programmes were so successful that shortages started to occur from 1936 on, though a large number of new power stations built in the 1950s enabled supply to catch up again.

Generation facilities

Hydro

Large-scale hydro facilities or schemes in New Zealand include the Waitaki River Hydroelectric System on the Waitaki in the South Island, a scheme which supplies 30% of New Zealand's considerable amount of hydropower. The Aviemore Dam and the Benmore Dam are some of the largest generation stations of the scheme. With the original scheme built in the 1960s, Project Aqua was to expand on the existing scheme in the 2000s with further generation capacity on the lower Waitaki, but was abandoned before construction due to costs and substantial civic protests.
Other large dams/power stations include the Clyde Dam, Roxburgh Dam and the Manapouri Power Station (all South Island), as well as the various facilities of the Waikato River Hydro System on the Waikato River in the North Island.

Geothermal

New Zealand, similar to Iceland, has favourable geological conditions for the exploitation of geothermal power. However, while there are several very old and large-scale geothermal power stations in the country, much potential still lies untapped, with the New Zealand Geothermal Association estimating an installation capacity (using only existing technology) of around 3,600 MW. Existing installed capacity is over 400 MW, supplying 7% of the country's electricity use.

Wind

As of late 2007, 321 MW of generation capacity in New Zealand was from wind, almost doubling the capacity from the previous year. This capacity is sufficient to power over 110,000 average New Zealand households., four geothermal facilities with a total of 532 MW near Taupo (awaiting consent or planned) and 'Project Hayes', a 630 MW wind farm near Dunedin (consented).

Power grid

Existing

One of New Zealand's main grid elements is the inter-island connection, which transfers South Island energy northwards to Wellington, in turn allowing power generation north of the city to be used mainly for demand further north in areas like Hamilton, Tauranga and Auckland.
Often in the media is the state of Auckland's power grid, which had several famous blackouts, such as the 5-weeks long 1998 Auckland power crisis or the much shorter 2006 Auckland Blackout. Both were caused when crucial elements of the grid failed. Due to the rising power demand and the geographical nature of the grid (with almost all power routed through to Auckland from the south), there was (and still is) only very limited redundancy in the local grid.

Proposed

One of the largest and most contentious current projects (as of 2008) is a Transpower grid upgrade plan through the Waikato, which is being fought by numerous local farmers and lifestyle block owners who consider that the new pylon lines and upgrades to existing lines would cause significant amenity loss. They also allege that the process that led to the decision to construct the network upgrade was legally flawed. An appeal currently being prepared to go to the High Court of New Zealand is expected to cost up to NZ 1 million. Anger about the proposal, claimed to intend the construction of pylons three times as high as previous New Zealand projects, has already led to threats of sabotage against a future line.
Other major projects currently proposed are Transpower's plan for a NZ $ 600 million line upgrade from Benmore to Wellington,

Supply issues

For the 2008 winter, the chief executive of Meridian Energy, speaking for the electricity industry, warned in February that safety margins in both the capacity of the supply grid and power generation are very low, and limited cuts in supply may become necessary (such as cutting off hot-water supply systems from the power grid).

Facility ownership

New Zealand's electrical energy generation, previously state-owned as in most countries, was deregulated and partly sold off in the preceding decades, following a model typical in the Western world. However, a number of companies are still state-owned enterprises.
All of the governments energy assets originally came under the Public Works Department. From 1946, the management of generation and transmission came under a new department, the State Hydro-Electric Department, later renamed in 1958 as the New Zealand Electricity Department (NZED). The reformist Fourth Labour Government corporatised the department as a State-owned enterprise in 1987, as ElectriCorp, later renamed as the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand (ECNZ). In 1994, ECNZ's transmission business was split off as Transpower New Zealand Limited. In 1996 ECNZ was split again, with a new generation business, Contact Energy, being formed. The Shipley Government privatised Contact Energy in 1998. From 1 April 1999 ECNZ was split again, this time into three new SOEs - Mighty River Power Limited, Genesis Power Limited and Meridian Energy Limited.

Major consumers

In addition to the urban areas of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, which are the main electricity consumers of the country, New Zealand also has another major energy consumer which uses 15% of the national energy production - the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter in Southland, which effectively has a dedicated power generator in the Manapouri power station.

Energy policy

As of 2007, renewable energy sources made up 70% of the nation's (electric) energy production, with a commitment by the government to increase the share to 90% by 2025 (however, Greenpeace estimates only about 60% of New Zealand's energy as currently being from renewable sources). Only one major coal-fired plant exists, the Huntly power station, and proposals for new construction/reactivation of other coal plants have been brought down by legal or political means. This is part of New Zealand's Labour government's vision of becoming carbon neutral by 2020.
From 2010, on, New Zealand Energy Strategy will see levies for Greenhouse effect emissions to be added to power prices depending on the level of emissions.

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