Our Market Operations Weekly Report contains the latest information about the electricity market, including security of supply, wholesale price trends and system capacity.
It is published every Tuesday. Click here to receive the report via email every week.
If you have any comments or questions please contact the Market Operations Team at [email protected].
Latest Report / More Information
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MO Latest Update.pdf
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Current Storage Positions
Security of Supply and Capacity
Energy
Last week saw below average inflows in both the North and South Islands. North Island hydro storage dropped from 71% to 63% of the historic mean for the time of year, and South Island storage decreased from 74% to 72%. National hydro storage continued to decline to 71% of the historic mean for this time of year.
Capacity
Margins were healthy last week, with all but one residual above 1,000 MW. The lowest residual point was 570 MW on Monday evening coinciding with low wind and high demand.
We issued a revised NZGB CAN last week that shows potential shortfalls on all weekdays from 12 July through to the end of the month. The 19 July potential shortfall is the largest and now sits at -184 MW. This is due to a combination of high demand over the same period last year and multiple generation and transmission outages. We recommend that participants consider the flexibility of planned outages and whether the start/end time of the outages can be rescheduled away from the peaks. We also recommend avoiding scheduling further outages during this period that may reduce generation margins. The latest NZGB report is available on the NZGB website.
Electricity Market Commentary
Weekly Demand
Total demand decreased marginally last week to 816 GWh (0.5% decrease) and isthe second lowest for this time of year over the last four years. The Matariki holiday contributed to lower demand. Demand peaked at 6,434 MW on the evening of Thursday 25 June.
Weekly Prices
The average wholesale energy price at Ōtāhuhu increased from $265/MWh to $276/MWh last week, in line with lower hydro and more thermal unit commitment. Wholesale prices peaked at $425/MWh at Ōtāhuhu over the evening of Wednesday 24 June.
Generation Mix
The average renewable percentage of the generation mix decreased marginally by 1% to 77% last week. Hydro remained steady at 51% of the mix whereas wind generation decreased by 1% to 6.5%. The geothermal share of generation mix decreased from 20% to 19% and the thermal generators remained steady at 20%.
HVDC
The majority of HVDC flow was northwards last week and followed the usual pattern of southward transfer during the evening and northward transfer during the day. 15 GWh was sent south and 21 GWh sent north. The northwards flow mostly occurred on weekdays when demand and hydro generation was highest.