Total hydro-electric lake storage passed below last year’s levels during the week, dropping to 76% of average for the time of year on Friday 27th April, 2007.
New Zealand’s national storage stood at 2305.2 Gigawatt hours (GWh) on Friday, having steadily declined from 3037 GWh on March 19th. Storage has been below average since February 21st.
Inflows from catchments have often been below average since January, reflecting the dry conditions that persisted during the late summer. Above average lake inflows were recorded on only 3 days during February, 9 days during March and 1 day during the detailed reporting period to April 21st.
Full details for April are expected to be available by the end of next week.
[Compiled from data supplied by M-co.]