User Guide
The Purpose of This Document
This document is a view of New Zealand's energy future and a discussion of how we might shape it for the benefit of future generations of New Zealanders. It:
- identifies the energy challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand;
- explains the government's strategic direction in energy policy;
- explains how energy and energy-related policies work in that strategic direction; and
- identifies possible future directions for policy development.
Responding to This Document
The government welcomes comment on this document. There is no formal submission process, but comments can be sent to sustainableenergy@med.govt.nz.
The government plans to use this document as a basis for discussion with key stakeholders in energy over the next six months. It will draw on the results of this discussion and build on the ideas expressed in this document as it develops policies to take New Zealand further towards a sustainable energy system.
The government hopes this document will help broaden public debate about New Zealand's energy future, particularly by increasing attention to issues for the long term.
Energy Units
In discussing the energy system, some technical terms are unavoidable. Some frequently used terms are explained here. The Glossary has more definitions of key words and measurement units.
Energy is measured in joules and watts. The joule is the international unit of energy or work and the watt is the unit of power.
A gigajoule (GJ) is one billion joules. It is the standard unit for bulk sales of natural gas. One gigajoule is equivalent to:
- the energy required to run a gas barbecue for about 30 - 35 hours
- the energy in about 30 litres of petrol
- the energy in about 45 kilograms of coal.
A petajoule (PJ) is 1015 (one quadrillion) joules. It is the unit most often used to measure energy production and use on a national scale. One petajoule is roughly equivalent to:
- all the electricity used in Nelson in a year;
- a coastal tanker load of 25,000,000 litres of oil;
- over 10 days' output from the Huntly power station at full capacity.
A megawatt (MW) is one million watts. It is the standard unit for electricity generation capacity. One megawatt of capacity is enough to supply the peak electricity needs of about 500 households. New Zealand's largest power station at Huntly has a capacity of 1000MW.
A gigawatt-hour (GWh) is one billion watts of power over an hour. It is the standard unit for measuring electricity production on a national scale. The 1000 megawatt (1 gigawatt) Huntly power station running at full capacity for one hour would produce a gigawatt-hour of electricity. Total annual electricity production in New Zealand is about 40,000GWh.
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a thousand watts of power over an hour. It is the standard unit for a household electricity bill. Ten hundred-watt light bulbs running for an hour would consume one kilowatt-hour of electricity. A household refrigerator consumes on average about 650kWh of electricity a year. Total electricity consumption in a household averages about 8000kWh a year.
References
A selection of key references is given in the Selected Bibliography.
Document Map
The energy system is a web. Its parts are interconnected and interactive. This document artificially, but necessarily, divides energy issues into separate topics for discussion. It must also present these topics in a sequence, when in fact they are of parallel rather than sequential importance.
The following diagram is a map of this document.
The table of contents gives a more detailed summary of topics and their locations.
A concise summary of this document has been published separately. For an overview, readers can also begin with Section 1: Energy Today, which sets out the energy challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand, and move directly to Section 4: Energy Tomorrow, which summarises how we have responded and how we might expand our response in the future.
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