Mercury Energy’s hydro power generation has been boosted by a wet half-year

They called it an “atmospheric  river”, the weather bombardment which hit  NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a  terrible toll on  metropolitan  Auckland and the rest of the region.

Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was to emphasise the impact of  what the company said had  been “the wettest first half-year ever”. Mercury operates the chain of hydro-electricity stations on the Waikato river.

More prosaically, the company said  hydro generation  in the second quarter  of this financial year was 38% higher than in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Yes, there is good news for a Covid-weary NZ – and it has started to flow from our energy companies

In the wake of  the  emotionally  draining sagas that  have   dominated  the  mainstream  media   for the past week or  so — -first  the  allegations of   bullying within  Parliament and  by parliamentarians, and then the  All Blacks’  triumph and turmoil  over the  coach’s future employment — can  any relief  be  found?

Is  any   good  news  looming  for  a  nation  battered  by the  Covid  pandemic  and  frustrated by a  government that  makes  grand  announcements   but  often  fails  to  deliver?

Well,  yes, there  is.

Point  of   Order   believes  we  don’t  have  to look  far. It  will  come  from  the  business  sector   which    has  been  beavering away, despite the pressures on staff from Covid  and  within  the  supply  chain  to  and  from overseas  markets.

Some  of  it   is  already  emerging as the  big electricity gentailer, Contact Energy, reported today.   Contact  did  its   bit  for the  country  by  limiting  price  increases in the  year to 1.2%, announcing   a  new renewable energy  project, and indicating  it will be negotiating with  Rio  Tinto  which  wants  to  keep the Tiwai Point aluminium  smelter open  beyond 2024.  (More  of  what Contact  CEO  Mike  Fuge had  to  say  below).