Hydro storage lake levels declined steadily during May.
At the beginning of May 2010, New Zealand’s hydro-electric storage lakes stood at 4117 GWh (GigaWatt hours), 137% of average for the time of year. By month’s end, this had steadily declined to 3427 GWh, 120% of average.
Inflows were above average on only 12 days during May.
Interisland transfers via the Cook Strait cables followed a more usual trend with south-to-north transfers exceeding southbound transfers on all 31 days. No southbound transfers were made during the month.
Adjusting weekday for weekday, demand was lower than May last year on 17 days. However, the average daily demand was 170.0 GWh, close to the average load of 107.3 GWh for May 2009. Peak load of 119.0 GWh was drawn on May 31st, less than the peak load day of 121.9 GWh which occurred on the 21st of May 2009.
[ Compiled from data supplied by M-co ]