Energy in New Zealand 2019 released

The amount of electricity generated from non-renewable sources fell last year despite a rise in coal-fired generation to cope with a constrained gas supply according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s latest annual energy report.

Energy in New Zealand 2019, released today, is MBIE’s annual round-up of the energy sector, highlighting key trends in energy supply, transformation, demand and price for the 2018 calendar year.

“2018 was a significant year for the energy sector with a major shift in policy direction for the oil and gas industry and reduced production from the country’s largest gas field the most notable events,” says Daniel Griffiths, MBIE Manager of Markets, Evidence and Insights.

“Electricity generation from non-renewable sources fell by 12 per cent despite a spike in generation from coal to cope with outages at Pohokura gas field. The fall led to the share of electricity derived from renewable sources increasing to 84 per cent from 82 per cent a year earlier.

“The reduced gas supply also meant the share of renewables in the total primary energy supply (the amount energy available for use accounting for imports and exports), hit a record high of 40 per cent.

“The gas issues were also a factor as total energy demand fell 0.6 per cent compared to 2017. Demand from the industrial sector fell by 3.1 per cent, which was largely driven by a decline in production from major gas user Methanex. While oil demand grew, via increases in the use of diesel and aviation fuel, it was not enough to offset the dip in industrial demand.

“Last year was also notable for high fuel prices in the last quarter. Global crude oil prices hit a four-year high in October and petrol prices at the pump in New Zealand hit a record high.”

The Energy in New Zealand 2019 publication is available here

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