Power consumption falls sharply with NZ in lockdown

Demand for electricity slumped 9 per cent last week as the country entered the coronavirus lockdown, according to figures published by Transpower.

The national grid operator said New Zealand consumed 683 gigawatt-hours of electricity, down from 744GWh previously, in the week to Sunday.

Power demand in the North Island fell 10 per cent, while demand in the South Island fell 6 per cent, it said in a report.

Generation from Genesis Energy's coal and gas-fuelled Huntly power station halved from 800MW to 400MW as demand fell.

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The period covers the three days that preceded the lockdown as well as the first four days that followed it, so the demand drop in future weeks attributable to the lockdown is likely to be even higher.

Transpower said the fall in demand on the first day of the lockdown, when compared to the previous week, was 12 per cent.

Estimates compiled by Tesla and published in Energy News were that weather-adjusted demand fell by 15 per cent on the first two days of the lockdown and by about 9 per cent over the weekend.

The data suggests any increase in power demand caused by people working from home is likely to be easily offset by the drop in demand from businesses and industry.

A decision by Rio Tinto to close potline 4 at the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter should free up 50MW of generating capacity, or 8.4 gigawatt-hours each week, in the lower South Island.

Spark said it had seen a shift in broadband usage, with a doubling of day-time traffic, and higher night-time peaks, but like broadband network company Chorus it did not expect any new congestion on its networks.

Technology director Mark Beder said while Spark had seen significant growth in daytime traffic, its networks had sufficient capacity to carry the load.

After a wobbly start to the lockdown period with some failed calls, the country's mobile networks also appear to be coping with an increase in voice traffic.