The country's electricity system was "running hard" overnight, but coped as it should, says the head of the national grid operator.
Fierce weather in the South Island and lower North Island over the last couple of days has placed stress on the high voltage national grid as ice and snow build up on lines combined with severe winds and lightning.
New records were met for electricity demand earlier this week as extremely cold weather roared up the country.
There was a peak demand figure of 7048MW on Monday night -- 120MW higher than the previous high of 6928 MW on July 25 this year.
Wellington came close to a blackout that night, as three of the four main transmission lines into the city were shut down by snow and ice stuck to the wires. Lightning then hit the remaining line, causing power to flicker, the Dominion Post reported.
However, last night there were few problems, apart from some trippings near Lake Waikaremoana, between Lake Taupo and Gisborne, Transpower chief executive Patrick Strange told Radio NZ.
Overnight the load across the country stayed at Monday's record levels. "It wasn't so peaky. It came up to the peak and stayed flat for a couple of hours.
"Electricity is there to keep people warm. Obviously heaters stayed on, perhaps there was some good programmes on TV and people stayed up later last night. It's hard to work out."
The South Island was more used to extreme weather, but it was more unusual for Wellington, where electricity use hit peaks 10 percent higher than previously.
"Certainly last night we had quite a bit of wind, but all the thermal generators would have been running hard. There's plenty of water in the lakes. The system was certainly running very hard, but doing what it is supposed to do."
