Preface: Energy in New Zealand - A Short History
New Zealand's first inhabitants arrived on the wind, at least 1000 years ago. The Mäori continued to use sail for some transport, but relied largely on their own muscle power for other travel, agriculture and industry. Wood and geothermal springs provided heat for cooking and comfort.
In the early 19th century settlers from Europe also arrived by sail. They used domesticated animals to supplement their labour and transport people and freight. Wood remained a major source of heat for industry and households, which were lit by oil lamps and candles. Hydro power was used to shift timber and later excavate gold.
Coal began taking over from wood as the main domestic and industrial fuel from about the 1860s. By the turn the century it was New Zealand's main source of energy. Coal gas became widely used, mostly for lighting. The first gasworks were built in the main centres in the 1860s and by 1916 there were gasworks in 56 centres.
The first oil well was drilled in Taranaki in 1866 and one small commercial oilfield was developed at New Plymouth in the early 20th century. Car ownership began increasing rapidly in the 1920s, fuelled by imported petrol until the Marsden Point refinery began processing crude oil in 1964. Offshore oil exploration began in the 1960s, with new small fields coming into production in the late 1970s.
In 1888 the West Coast town of Reefton switched on New Zealand's first public electricity supply, from the country's first significant hydroelectric plant. The main centres followed quickly with coal-fired generation plants. Electricity was mainly used for lighting until the 1930s, when it began to take over from coal gas for cooking. Large state hydroelectric projects began to make power widely available from the 1920s and by the 1950s electricity was the main form of household energy.
The Second World War caused the country's first serious petrol shortages, with rationing that lasted until 1950. Rapid economic growth after the war brought several years of electricity shortages until more large hydro developments were completed in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1960 the aluminium company Comalco agreed with the government to build a smelter in Southland, powered by hydroelectricity generated at Lake Manapouri in Fiordland. A proposal to raise the lake by up to 30 metres sparked a campaign of opposition marking the beginning of an environmental movement in New Zealand. The hydro project was scaled back, but the smelter proceeded and remains New Zealand's largest single electricity consumer.
After global oil shocks in 1973 and 1979 New Zealanders were urged by the government to "Think Big" about energy projects. A synthetic petrol plant, a methanol plant and an ammonia-urea fertiliser plant were built in the 1980s, consuming natural gas from the large Maui field in Taranaki, and the Marsden Point oil refinery was expanded.
In the late 1980s the New Zealand oil sector was deregulated, removing price controls on petrol that had applied since 1933. State-owned coal mines and electricity generation were restructured as commercial operations.
In the 1990s some state-owned electricity generation was privatised and a wholesale electricity market was created. A severe drought in the South Island in 1992 compelled a nationwide electricity savings campaign to avoid power shortages. Climate change emerged as a global environmental problem and New Zealand signed United Nations climate change agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol. The failure of high-voltage underground cables in 1998 caused blackouts in Auckland's central business district.
New Zealand introduced its first National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy in 2001. Dry periods and thermal fuel constraints in 2001 and 2003 required power saving campaigns to reduce the risk of shortages. An Electricity Commission was created in 2003 to regulate the industry and manage electricity security. Maui gas began to run out. New Zealand ratified the Kyoto Protocol, committing itself to a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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