Consumption
In 2011, New Zealand consumed a total of 38,490 GWh of electricity. Industrial consumption made up 37.7 percent of that figure, agricultural consumption made up 5.0 percent, commercial consumption made up 23.8 percent, and residential consumption made up 33.5 percent. There were just over 1,929,000 connections to the national electricity network on in March 2011, with 87.2 percent being residential connections.
| Category | Total consumption (GWh) | Total connections |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | 1,937 | 63,512 |
| Industrial | 14,528 | 34,832 |
| Mining | 407 | |
| Food Processing | 1882 | |
| Wood, Pulp, Paper and Printing | 3,224 | |
| Chemicals | 683 | |
| Basic Metals | 6,917 | |
| Other sectors | 1,414 | |
| Commercial and Transport | 9,146 | 147,613 |
| Residential | 12,879 | 1,683,089 |
| Total | 39,038 | 1,929,046 |
New Zealand's largest single electricity user is the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter in Southland, which can demand up to 640 megawatts of power, and annually consumes around 5400 GWh. The smelter effectively has the Manapouri power station as a dedicated power generator to supply it. Other large industrial users include the Tasman pulp and paper mill at Kawerau (175 MW demand), and New Zealand Steel's Glenbrook mill (116 MW demand).
The other major consumers are the cities, with Auckland, the nation's largest city, demanding up to 1722 MW and consuming 8679 GWh in 2010-11. Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Dunedin are also major consumers, with other large demand centres including Whangarei-Marsden Point, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Napier-Hastings, Palmerston North, Nelson, Ashburton, Timaru-Temuka, and Invercargill.
Read more about this topic: Electricity Sector In New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the word consumption:
“The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods.”
—Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929)
“Daily life is governed by an economic system in which the production and consumption of insults tends to balance out.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)
“To expect to increase prices and then to maintain them at a higher level by means of a plan which must of necessity increase production while decreasing consumption is to fly in the face of an economic law as well established as any law of nature.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)