New Zealand Energy Quarterly
The New Zealand Energy Quarterly provides quarterly data and analysis on energy supply, demand, prices and associated greenhouse gas emissions. This page has the current edition.
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Current Energy Quarterly publication
The current edition of Energy Quarterly is for the January to March quarter (Q1) 2025. It was released on 12 June 2025. The next Energy Quarterly will be released on 11 September 2025.
Main highlights for this quarter
- March 2025 quarter saw below average hydro inflows, with Transpower indicating that inflows in January and February were the lowest on record for these months. Hydro generation was down 15.1%, the lowest quarterly hydro generation since the June 2012 quarter, and the lowest March quarter generation since 1987. There was a similar downturn in wind generation, falling 21.1%. Coal and gas fired generation increased 54.4% and 1% respectively to compensate.
- Renewable share of generation was still 83.2% this quarter, compared to the 64.7% share in June 2012 quarter. Geothermal generation picked up some of the slack, up 20.4%, largely due to new geothermal capacity coming online last year. Solar generation was also up 60.7%, contributing to this increase was the first solar farm directly connected to the national grid coming online. Total electricity consumption for the quarter was 9,250 GWh, down 3.1%. Electricity consumption from Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing fell 15.4%, Commercial fell 2%, Industrial fell 2.3%, and Residential stayed steady with a 0.8% decline.
- Residential electricity costs, for the year ending March 2025, increased slightly by 1.5% (.52 c/kwh), when adjusted for inflation. Natural gas prices saw rises across all sectors. After adjusting for inflation, Residential was up 18.5%, Commercial up 20.5%, Industrial up 14.9%, and Wholesale up 12.8%. Petrol and diesel prices, however, decreased 5.1% and 9.8%. This can be attributed to crude oil prices falling and the removal of the Auckland Regional Fuel tax in June 2024.
- Net gas production was down 19%, with negative stock change indicating withdrawals from Ahuroa gas storage to meet demand. With Methanex still ramping up production overall gas non-energy use was down 33%, and energy end use down 12%, driven by a drop in chemical sector energy end use. Fuel imports and consumption both decreased by 1%. Jet fuel use was down 3%, mainly due to a drop in international transport (down 4%).
- With the Stockton railway open, coal exports were up 97% on the previous quarter and 23% on March 2024. Following Genesis’ stockpile increase, imports were down 8%. Overall non-electricity coal consumption continued its long-term decline, down 28%, again mainly due to less coal use by the Dairy Products sector.
Read the summary for this quarter
New Zealand Energy Quarterly March 2025 summary
Read the media release for this quarter
Quarterly share of renewable energy remains high despite record low hydro levels
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Previous Energy Quarterly editions
You can view previous years' editions of the New Zealand Energy Quarterly here.
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Last updated: 12 June 2025