Ref: DOIA 2122-2282
5 July 2022
Nicky McLean
[FYI request #19586 email]
Dear Nicky McLean
I refer to your email of 3 June 2022 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, requesting
the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Via your organisation's web site a copy of file renewables.xlsx can be obtained, and my attention
for the moment is directed at the entries under the heading Energy Transformation, specifically
those for Wind. You offer calendar year totals in PetaJoules, and starting with the year 2000
(before which there was just the Brooklyn hill turbine and Hau Nui and Tararua had just started),
the table below show your figures followed by mine, from a national database of electricity
data. Apologies for the layout, but fixed-spacing typefaces are not available here.
Year: MBIE other
2000: 0.43 0.50
2001: 0.50 0.48
2002: 0.56 0.55
2003: 0.53 0.52
2004: 1.30 1.29
2005: 2.21 2.20
2006: 2.24 2.22
2007: 3.35 3.31
2008: 3.81 3.76
2009: 5.31 5.26
2010: 5.89 5.84
2011: 7.05 6.66
2012: 7.48 6.87
2013: 7.28 6.71
2014: 7.96 7.01
2015: 8.51 7.22
2016: 8.43 7.74
2017: 7.53 6.88
2018: 7.44 6.79
2019: 8.12 7.49
2020: 8.30 7.70 2021: ?.?? 8.56
As you can see, apart from the year 2000, your figures are consistently higher and often by more
than ten percent. My values are based on the summations of half-hourly generation data, as
metered, easily obtained via a system called Gnash. (Gnash.exe for windows, Gnash for
Building, Resources and Markets
15 Stout Street, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6140 New Zealand
E [email address]
T +64 4 472 0030
W www.mbie.govt.nz
F +64 4 499 0969 or +64 4 473 7010
GNU/Linux) So my question is 1) where have your values come from, and 2) what is included and
what not. For instance, have any values been based upon the nominal installed capacity (with
some estimate of an annual load factor, say), and have you included some sort of data/estimate
for miscellaneous wind turbines scattered about, perhaps supplying a factory? For instance, there
are some wind turbines in the Seaview industrial area that might supply internal load and thus
not the public supply even though offsetting the draw on the public supply.
By contrast, the half-hourly data available to Gnash are clearly deficient: wind turbine generation
at Mahinerangi and Horseshoe Bend is lumped in with hydro generation (if it is counted at all) and
so not identified as "wind", and whole wind farms are omitted entirely, as at Flat Hill (near Bluff),
Weld Cone, and Lulworth, as well as for various individual locations such as atop Brooklyn. And
the absence of data for the new wind farm at Turitea will shortly be the subject of an OIA request
to the Electricity authority.
Thus, I expect Gnash's data to be "low", but, not by so much as appears to be the case. So, what
makes up your data?
I am writing to notify you that I am extending the timeframe for responding to your request under
section 15A(1)(b) of the Act, as consultations necessary to make a decision on the request are such that
a proper response cannot reasonably be made within the original time limit.
We will now respond to your request on or before 12 July 2022, which is an extension of five working
days.
You have the right to seek investigation and review of my decision by the Ombudsman, in accordance
with section 28(3) of the Act. The relevant details can be found at
: www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Yours sincerely
Madeline Sherwood King
Team Leader, Ministerial Services
Building, Resources and Markets
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