Long-dated forward price curves dropped 24% at both Benmore and Otahuhu on Tiwai aluminum smelter exit announcements. 263 long-dated contracts were traded on 9 July, mostly maturing in 2021 and 2022. Tiwai load accounts for approximately 13 percent of national demand. NZAS has terminated its power supply contract which will end in August 2021.

2020 was an interesting year in the electricity market with much uncertainty around how demand in 2021 would respond to a recession and potential industrial plant closures. By the time 2020 came to a close, open interest in 2021 calendar year baseload futures contracts had reached 5,140 GWh. This was the highest open interest for any calendar year period since the exchange-traded futures market was established in 2009. The previous high was for the 2019 calendar year when open interest peaked at 3,380 GWh early in that year. Open interest for 2021 baseload products represents a 52 percent increase over the 2019 equivalent and accounts for 25 percent of the annual electricity consumption in New Zealand. Compare the rate of accumulation and the level attained with other calendar years in the public dashboard.

Transpower is undertaking major work on the HVDC during January - April 2020. This work will result in reduced capacity and some bipole outages. This chart shows the flow (MW) over the last four weeks. More information on the outages is available on Transpower's website.