New official figures highlight the damage done by combined energy woes during the second quarter of the year.
The Ministry of Economic Development's latest New Zealand Energy Quarterly, published today, shows petrol prices rose 22c, or 13 percent, in the three months to June compared to the March quarter.
At the same time, dry conditions resulted in hydro generation falling 11 percent from a year earlier to 4751 gigawatt hours (GWh) in the June quarter.
In contrast, coal-fired generation was up sharply to 1617 GWh from 985 GWh in the June 2007 quarter. Overall, non-renewable electricity generation was up 15 percent from a year earlier to 4812 GWh.
With hydro generation down, emissions of so-called greenhouse gases caused by human activity, widely seen as making the planet warmer than it would otherwise be, were also up.
Emissions were 25 percent higher than a year earlier at 2767 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The report said low hydro inflows in the June quarter resulted in spot electricity prices increasing dramatically, leading to industrial users making "voluntary" demand reductions.
Geothermal energy supplied a steady 8 percent of total generation at 880 GWh, up around 70 GWh from a year earlier.
Wind generation was down 16 percent from the March quarter at 220 GWh, but up slightly from a year earlier due to a large increase in wind capacity in the second half of 2007, the report said.
The Crown-owned diesel-fired Whirinaki reserve generator ran hard in the June quarter producing 96 GWh, its largest generation output since being commissioned in 2004, providing just under 1 percent of total generation.
On petrol prices, although the average price of premium petrol broke through the $2 per litre mark, prices were still slightly below levels experienced in the early to mid-1980s when adjusted for inflation.
Coal production was 21 percent higher in the June quarter from a year earlier at 1514 thousand tonnes, the highest quarterly output since December 2006.
During the June quarter, Solid Energy's Stockton opencast coal mine returned to full production, after production difficulties and the slippage of an export shipment had limited output during the past year.
Even greater production was expected in the second half of this year and throughout 2009.
Coal exports were more than 70 percent up on a year earlier at 736 thousand tonnes to the third-highest on record. Export levels were expected to grow as the Pike River Coal mine on the West Coast came into production.
