1 week Ago By Jamie Gray
Heavy rain is taking pressure off the country’s hydro lakes, but more is needed to make up for the abnormally dry start to 2025, Chris Ewers, Meridian Energy’s general manager wholesale, said. Wholesale power prices have been steadily increasing since the start of the year due to dry and calm weather, this week hitting $400 per megawatt hour (MWh) and over. Most of the rain landed in the upper South Island catchments, but southern South Island catchments also got a useful dousing.
“We saw just under 200 millimetres fall in the headwaters of Lake Te Anau and about 130mm in the headwaters of Lake Pukaki, so both of those events have helped lift lake levels a little,” he said. Pukaki is the country’s biggest storage lake..
