\u201cThe culprits are Lake Tekapo, which is really low, and Lake P\u016bkaki, which is our biggest storage reservoir,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also got H\u0101wea, which is low. W\u0101naka and Wakatipu were low last week but they\u2019ve had quite a bit of rain this week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lake Manap\u014duri had been low but was improving.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, gas prices, as measured by the Frankley Road monthly index, have gone from $15 a gigajoule (Gj) a month ago to $21\/Gj this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cGas prices are definitely making their presence felt,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n
Gas is responsible for around 8% of New Zealand\u2019s baseload electricity supply but domestic production of the fossil fuel has been in decline since 2018.<\/p>\n
Chris Garr, Meridian Energy\u2019s head of operations, said there were no capacity issues, despite conditions being slightly drier than average.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started with the lakes being above average, but we had quite a dry period over May, June and July,\u201d Garr said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven up until last week, it\u2019s been very dry and our Waiau catchment has been quite low.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key driver is what\u2019s going on with gas and what\u2019s going on with thermal fuels, and that\u2019s really the thing that\u2019s been having probably the largest influence on prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had quite a long period where wind has been relatively low, with small periods where it\u2019s been very, very busy, so that\u2019s also caused price volatility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snow melting into the catchments can have a big impact on the market.<\/p>\n
Garr said the snow pack, which starts accumulating around March and April and peaks around October, was below average for this time of year.<\/p>\n
Meridian is seeing about 500 gigawatt hours of below-average storage in the snow pack from what it would see in an average year, he said.<\/p>\n