• Transpower expected to announce today (Thursday August 22) whether it is adjusting the Alert Contingent Storage Release Boundary to help with power shortage
• The sector is in crisis with many businesses closing due to skyrocketing prices.
• Winstone Pulp International is the latest business that plans to shut two sawmills as a result of high wholesale energy prices.
• Domestic consumers were also concerned about power prices.

Transpower is expected to reveal today whether or not it will let generators take more water from hydro lakes to combat the current power shortage.

It wants to increase the buffer applied in calculating the Contingent Storage Release Boundary (CSRB) from 50 GWh to 320 GWh from 1 September 2024 until 1 October 2024.

Latest figures from Transpower show national hydro storage is at 55 percent and is among the lowest levels ever recorded for this time of year.

'Severe effects' on the environment

The idea was open for consultation, with 11 submissions made in total.

One was from The Guardians of Lake Hāwea, a group who ensure that Lake Hāwea's water quality, biodiversity and ecosystems are maintained and managed sustainable and safely.

Chair Geoff Kernick said the group did not agree lifting the buffer was the best solution and said it was likely to have "severe effects on the local environment, with dust storms already occurring each time there is a north westerly wind".

Spring snow melt and normal summer rainfall would not be enough to raise the lake to average levels by next winter meaning inadequate water storage to meet national electricity requirements next winter as well, he said.

There were also concerns with gravel and silt, he said.

"There can be a lot of issues with this silt... picking it up with the wind and blowing it down towards town and this has a very negative impact on people, on what people can do, but also on the environment," Kernick said.

"It is a possibility that the lake level may not recover very quickly if we don't get normal spring rains, the lake level could stay low for a long time, so these aquatic plants would die."

Sector at 'crisis point'

Auckland University Associate Economics Professor Stephen Poletti was hoping it went ahead.

"We're in a situation which is a bit of a crisis really, I mean we've got top companies actually shutting down, not just shutting down temporarily, but shutting down permanently so its having a big impact on the economy.

"So I hope they do relax those contingent reserves, but it's like the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, we never should have got to this situation," he said.

However, he said there needed to be more long term solutions put in place.

One option would be to prioritise the expansion of rooftop solar throughout New Zealand.

Poletti said this would only add significantly to the overall electricity supply, but also help bring down prices.

'Use your powers' - Minister

The Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones said the Electricity Authority needed to "man up" and use its full powers to rein in electricity companies over skyrocketing prices, which has forced at least one large manufacturer to shut down its operations.

Shane Jones told RNZ on Wednesday that power companies where celebrating huge profits and the Authority had not been properly exercising its powers over them to ensure proper electricity supply and affordability.