Power boss: pray it rains

Waikato residents should be prudent with power use, and pray for rain. That's the message from Wel Networks chief executive Julian Elder after it was revealed southern hydro-lake levels were at their worst since the 1992 electricity crisis.

"The situation is that if we don't have rain then we get into a difficulty with the lakes in the South Island that impacts the whole country."

Consumers are as little as three weeks away from being asked to seriously cut back use if there is no rain, or sooner if a big station fails.

And with the winter chill pushing up demand for electricity the prospect of power shortages is real. Hamilton recorded a chilly 3C overnight.

Hydro storage is down to just 58 per cent of average, from 74 per cent at the start of April.

In 1992, the country was hit by blackouts and hot water heating cuts as a result of a similar severe drought in the South Island.

Storage is now lower than in 2003 when the last public power savings campaign was brought in.

And despite some rain in the North Island in the past few weeks, the whole country is reliant on the South Island hydro lakes, according to Mr Elder.

North Island thermal power stations had been generating flat out to compensate for falling southern lake levels.

"At various times in New Zealand, power actually gets transferred between the islands. If the South Island lakes do get low like in 1992 then a power savings campaign would be called for. From what I understand we're a few weeks away from that position."

Mr Elder advised Waikato power consumers not to waste electricity.

"If you don't need to be using it don't, because obviously as we use it we continue to draw down the lakes."

The country's biggest power user, the aluminium smelter at Bluff, has already cut power use by 10 per cent and other big industrial users have been cutting back because wholesale power prices were four times higher than last year.

Mr Elder said the other concern was that if it got colder, any rain could turn to snow and wouldn't get into the lakes until spring.

And there were fears electricity price rises loomed for already stretched South Islanders, as a result of the falling hydro-lake levels.

National grid operator Transpower chief executive Patrick Strange said they were "still concerned" about lake levels, with inflows low in the past fortnight.

Independent energy consultants had earlier put a 10 per cent to 30 per cent risk of 1992-type blackouts.

Earlier this month, power lines companies warned customers power could be cut "without warning" for at least 30 minutes, as the industry geared up for the growing risk of blackouts.

In 2003 a public power savings campaign was brought in to encourage people to save 10 per cent of their power.

NUCLEAR POWER? More than a third of Kiwis say the country should consider nuclear power. Thirty-six per cent of the 501 people polled by Research NZ agreed that "given concerns about the environment and the prospect of ongoing power crises and price rises", New Zealand should consider nuclear power as a viable energy source.Fifty eight per cent said no. Energy Minister David Parker dismissed the findings of the survey, which he said was based "on a loaded question"

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