Auckland Lags in Regional Power Savings

WINTER POWER TASKFORCE

Media Statement

7 May 2003

Auckland Lags in Regional Power Savings

The Lower South Island and Central North Island regions are leading the national power savings effort according to regional figures compiled by the Winter Power Taskforce.

The regions are loosely based on rugby's Super 12 regions and Winter Taskforce Co-ordinator Patrick Strange says that breakdown places Auckland and the Far North at the bottom of the table rather than the top placing currently held in the Super 12 Championship.

Savings figures to Sunday May 4 show Auckland and the Far North at 1.9%, the Central North Island 4.4%, Wellington 2.5%, Christchurch and the Upper South Island 2.5%, Dunedin and the Lower South Island 4.4%. The national savings figure during this period was 3.1%.

"That's a little disappointing from the country's largest population and business base but, these figures were compiled before the current advertising campaign began and the savings effort was only just becoming a focus of national attention," says Dr Strange.

"It's also fair to say that some businesses have been slower than householders to respond to the savings call. Auckland has a very large commercial centre, and this may have affected the overall savings figure for that region.

"Over the past few days, I've been encouraged by the amount of work being done by some businesses to reduce consumption, and I look forward to the impact flowing through to our savings figures.

"In addition, I expect we'll see an improvement in the next week or two following initiatives like Mercury Energy's major "beat your bill" campaign to reward its customers for saving power." Mercury's programme, announced yesterday, will provide financial rewards for savings by its approximately 270,000 Auckland area customers.

The latest daily demand figures show that the savings effort is climbing.

- Average savings for Tuesday 6 May were 4.1% - this is a slight but steady improvement in savings on yesterday's figures.

- Total consumption for Tuesday 6 May was 98.0 GWh, versus 103.5 GWh for the equivalent day last year. The 98 GWh is the lowest weekday load so far.

- National Hydro storage was at 1972 GWh - 65% average.

Savings to-date are:

Date Conservation Effort 2003 Demand (GWh) 2002 Equivalent Demand (GWh)

Sat 26 April 1.0% 88.68 89.84

Sun 27 April 0.7% 88.55 87.51

Mon 28 April 3.1% 98.62 102.32

Tue 29 April 3.0% 99.94 103.33

Wed 30 April 3.2% 98.70 102.88

Thurs 1 May 3.2% 98.60 100.0

Fri 2 May 3.6% 98.5 99.9

Sat 3 May 2.9% 88.1 89.9

Sun 4 May 3.1% 87.1 88.8

Mon 5 May 4.0% 98.7 102.6

Tue 6 May 4.1% 98.0 103.5

* A Map indicating each of the regions mentioned in this statement will be issued to media later today and available at www.winterpower.org.nz

ENDS

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