The hydro lakes are full and Meridian Energy is set to spill water from Lake Pukaki.
The Electricity Authority said in a note yesterday national hydro storage had increased significantly over the past week. Storage was now above the nominally full level, the first time that has happened since June, 2023.
During the last four weeks, wholesale spot prices have increased after a period of very low prices during much of the autumn.
There were different drivers of wholesale and retail price increases. Recent higher wholesale prices during November have been driven by higher demand, geothermal generation outages and lower wind generation.
The level of storage sits at about 4000GWh, which is about 1000GWh above average. The authority said there was no risk to the security of supply.
Meridian Energy said in a statement it was set to release water from Lake Pukaki this morning. Meridian Energy was authorised to operate the lake between 518m and 532.5m.
As of yesterday the lake level was at 532.24m and a Meridian Energy spokesman said there was a lot of rain forecast.
The last time water was spilt from Lake Pukaki was at the start of this year.
Spilling of excess water had also occurred in the Clutha River at the Clyde and Roxburgh dams.
Snow melt and constant rain had pushed the inflows to lakes up and raised storage significantly from the start of August.
