Hydroelectric power in New Zealand

Hydroelectric power in New Zealand has been a part of the country's energy system for over 100 years and continues to provide more than half of the country's electricity needs. Early schemes such as the Waipori scheme commissioned in 1903 and the Lake Coleridge power station commissioned in 1914 established New Zealand's use of renewable hydro energy.

By the early 1950s, over 1,000 megawatts (1,300,000 hp) of installed capacity was from hydro energy. By the early 1960s, most North Island hydro sites had been developed while the South Island still had many potential sites. The commissioning of the HVDC Inter-Island link in 1965 made it possible to send large amounts of electricity between the two islands, and from that time hydro capacity in the South Island increased rapidly. Major developments included the 540 MW Benmore Power Station (1966), the 700 MW Manapouri power station (1971), the 848 MW Upper Waitaki River Scheme (1977–85) and the 432 MW Clyde Dam (1992). By the mid-1990s, hydro capacity had reached over 5,000 MW, and remains around this level today.

In 2014, hydro generation produced 24,094 gigawatt-hours (86,740 TJ) of electricity, representing 57% of the total electricity generated. The percentage of New Zealand's electricity provided by hydro generation has been between 50% and 60% for the last decade, compared with a high of 84% in 1980.

The first industrial hydro-electric power plant was established at Bullendale in Otago in 1885, to provide power for a 20 stamp battery at the Phoenix mine. The plant used water from the nearby Skippers Creek, a tributary of the Shotover River.

Reefton was the first town with a reticulated public electricity supply from a significant hydroelectric plant after the commissioning of the Reefton Power Station in 1888. They were followed by Stratford in 1890.

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