Load Factor
Load factors have not been specified for each type of plant. The New Zealand electricity market is a deregulated one operating on supply and demand. Actual load factor for generating plant will depend on the price bid into the market and if the plant is dispatched. New plant tends to have higher efficiency than existing plant and therefore will tend to generate ahead of older plant and so will operate around the 90% level. It may however be less reliable in the first one to two years as teething problems are sorted out. As more efficient plant or renewables are brought on-line then the load factor may drop. For example, in recent years New Plymouth power station's (33% efficiency) load factor has been at around 25% while Huntly power station's (36% efficiency) has been 40%. A more detailed discussion is given in Appendix D.
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