News
Breaking the link between gas supply and power prices and what it means for New Zealand’s energy future
For years, New Zealand enjoyed relatively stable wholesale electricity prices. While there were occasional spikes during dry years, the overall cost of generat…
Marginal generators and prices in the electricity market
In the New Zealand wholesale electricity market, the price paid to dispatched generators is the nodal ‘spot price’, which is priced to reflect the ‘marginal’ g…
Eye on electricity: Dunkelflaute and its impact on our electricity sector
Dunkelflaute is a German term for ‘dark lull’, meaning cloudy and low wind days, an issue for electricity grids with high proportions of wind and solar generat…
Eye on electricity: Battery performance in New Zealand
New Zealand is building more renewable electricity generation. However, renewable generation (like wind and solar) vary with the weather, so renewable electric…
Eye on electricity: Five-minute price volatility and intermittent generation
Most new electricity generation capacity built in New Zealand in recent years has been solar or wind. Our monitoring of generation investment shows that this t…
Eye on electricity: ASX futures price volatility
New Zealand has a highly renewable electricity system that uses hydro, geothermal, wind and solar generation. However, high levels of renewable generation cont…
Space weather and the power system
Space weather has the potential to cause significant disruption to New Zealand’s electricity system. While rare, severe solar storms that reach Earth may affec…
The growing role of geothermal in New Zealand’s electricity mix
Geothermal energy provides renewable, reliable, steady low-priced baseload electricity. Recent investment in new geothermal generation has increased the amount…
How thermal generation costs affect wholesale electricity spot prices
New Zealand’s electricity is generated from hydro, wind, solar, geothermal and thermal fuels. Thermal fuels include coal, natural gas and diesel and are an imp…
Are ASX futures prices too high?
In the New Zealand wholesale electricity market, participants can buy and sell hedges as a possible method of managing risk caused by spot price volatility.
Grid-connected solar is having its time in the sun
New Zealand’s electricity system is rapidly building more grid scale solar generation. This generation is beginning to show up in the weekly generation mix and…
How accurate wind and solar forecasts and the new forecasting arrangement are crucial
Last year, the Authority introduced a hybrid forecasting arrangement and awarded DNV Services a contract to provide centralised wind and solar forecasting …
Strengthening hedge market transparency in the electricity market
Monitoring and reporting of the electricity market are key functions of the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko. To strengthen this work, we started publishin…
How marginal electricity spot pricing reflects cost
In the New Zealand wholesale electricity market, the price paid to dispatched generators is the nodal ‘spot price’, which is priced to reflect the ‘margina…
New generation projects flowing through the investment pipeline
New electricity generation projects are expected to significantly boost New Zealand’s energy system over the next two years. As at October 2025, there were 288…