Lower South Island leads powersaving effort

Media release 1 July 2008

Lower South Island leads powersaving effort

For the week to Tuesday 1 July, national savings of 3.2% were achieved over the corresponding period in the previous year. On Friday 27 June national power savings of 3.6% were reported. According to Patrick Strange, convenor of the Winter Power Group and Chief Executive of Transpower, who is leading the winter power savings campaign on behalf of the electricity industry, “the overall national savings for the last seven days is down slightly.

However, despite higher levels of demand on the system because of the cold and wet weekend, people are still saving electricity and there is probably a higher level of awareness of how savings can cut the cost of the power bill.”

In other results, the upper North Island region saved 2.8%, the central North Island region saved 3.5%, the lower North Island region saved 3.5%, the upper South Island saved 2.7% and the lower South Island region led the power saving effort and saved 3.6%.

“There has been some rain into the lakes throughout the country this week and the storage over the week has remained stable. However the lakes in the South Island remain low, and much lower than we would like for this time of year. We need to hold the lakes at this level for a few weeks; ongoing savings and continued strong reliability from the North Island thermal plants are the key to this.”

Electricity usage for each region is being compared on a week to week basis, to results from the corresponding week in 2007. Adjustments have been made for temperature, demand growth, and other factors that need to be ‘normalised’ in order to provide a more accurate comparison. People can monitor the regional savings results every Tuesday and Friday at www.powersavers.co.nz. The website also updates on a daily basis such key data as lake storage levels, inflows, usage and peak demand, as well as providing a wealth of energy savings tips from experts and the general public.

ENDS

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