New Zealand Energy Quarterly – March 2019
The New Zealand Energy Quarterly provides quarterly data and analysis on energy supply, demand and pricing across various commodities. This edition was released on 13 June 2019.
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March quarter 2019
Energy Quarterly: 2019 Q1 report [PDF, 126 KB]
ISSN 1178-2714 (online)
The New Zealand Energy Quarterly provides quarterly data and analysis on energy supply, demand, prices and associated greenhouse gas emissions. This publication is part of the suite of energy publications produced by the Energy and Building Trends Team of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The main highlights for the March 2019 quarter are:
- Renewable sources accounted for 80 per cent of electricity generation this quarter.
- Coal fired generation was 138 per cent higher than in March 2018.
- Hydro generation was down 1 per cent from March 2018, with lake levels being below the historical average for the entire quarter.
- Overall gas supply was 12 per cent below March 2018 levels, largely as a result of continued outages at Pohokura.
- Daily average wholesale energy prices peaked at $276.79/MWh and averaged around $150/MWh across the quarter.
- Petrol prices are almost back to the same levels as March 2018, however diesel remains elevated.
For more detailed data, see the relevant page:
Revisions to previously published data:
The Ministry has introduced a new code-based system for producing electricity generation statistics (covering generation, fuel use, and capacity), resulting in minor revisions to previously published data.
Several smaller retailers have been added to the Ministry’s electricity sales data collection following a review of data coverage. Sales data is used to produce electricity consumption, cost, and installation control point (ICP) statistics. The inclusion of these retailers has led to revisions in previously published statistics – most notably the Residential ICP count.
Revisions to previously published data:
Coal imports for the December quarter 2018 have been revised following the publication of data on imports by Stats NZ. The Ministry estimates coal imports using several sources, and the release of this additional data has led to improvements in the estimation process.