Source
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/energy-in-new-zealand-2023.pdf — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Summary
MBIE’s annual comprehensive report on New Zealand’s energy supply and demand for the 2022 calendar year (2023 edition, published August 2023). Covers electricity generation, renewable penetration, gas reserves, oil supply, coal, energy prices, and energy intensity, with full national energy-balance tables. This is the immediate predecessor to RD_001 (2024 edition, 2023 data year): RD_014 supplies the 2022 baseline that RD_001’s 2023 figures update. Headline 2022 story: a record warm-and-wet winter drove hydro inflows to push renewable electricity to 87% (95% in Q4), while the Marsden Point refinery closure (March 2022) made NZ 100% import-dependent for refined liquid fuels and gas 2P reserves fell sharply — the same structural national vulnerabilities that community self-sufficiency design must account for.
Key claims
- National energy self-sufficiency was 74% in 2022 (+1.4pp on 2021, -1.5pp on 2019), continuing a long-run downward trend as domestic production falls and demand rises. RD_014 (p3 “Overview — At a glance”; p3–4 text and Figure A.1)
- Coal self-sufficiency rose to 154% in 2022, while oil self-sufficiency fell to a record-low 12%. RD_014 (p4 text, Figure A.2)
- Electricity was 87% renewable in 2022 (+5.0pp on 2021, a record high), reaching 95% in the last quarter of 2022 — the highest quarterly renewable share in 43 years. RD_014 (p3 quick facts; p15 text and Figure C.1)
- 2022 generation mix: hydroelectric 60%, geothermal 18%, natural gas 9.9%, wind 6.5%, coal 2.9%. RD_014 (p13 “C. Electricity” section opener)
- Total electricity generation 43,476 GWh (+0.47% on 2021); total electricity consumption 39,429 GWh (-1.3% on 2021); 2,149,923 Installation Control Points (ICPs); total generation capacity 9,790 MW. RD_014 (p14 “Electricity — At a glance”)
- National energy consumption was 543 PJ in 2022, down 6.5% on the 2019 pre-COVID peak of 581 PJ. RD_014 (p3 “At a glance”; p5 text)
- National energy intensity fell to a record-low 1.96 MJ/$ (-2.7% on 2021), improving by an average of 1.7% per year between 1990 and 2022. RD_014 (p6 text and Figure A.4)
- Renewable share of total final energy consumption was 30% in 2022 (all-time high, +1.8pp on 2021); renewable share of total primary energy supply 44% (363 PJ); renewable electricity generated 37.9 TWh. RD_014 (p3 “At a glance”; p26 “Renewables — At a glance”)
- Solar indigenous production was 1.36 PJ in 2022; solar PV electricity generation is estimated using an assumed annual capacity factor of 14% (panels at full output 14% of the time), scaled by NIWA sunshine-hours data for seasonal variation. RD_014 (p10 Energy Balance Table, Renewables — Solar, Indigenous Production; p9 “How we treat solar photovoltaic panels”)
- Geothermal direct heat use was around 7.30 PJ in 2022 (just under 60% industrial, 33% commercial, remainder residential/agricultural); residential woody-biomass space-heating use is estimated at 7.44 PJ. RD_014 (p28 Box D.1; p10 Energy Balance Table, Solid Biofuels, Residential demand = 7.44)
- Natural gas 2P reserves were revised down 332 PJ (17%) between January 2022 and January 2023 (mostly Mangahewa -205 PJ and Maui -106 PJ); 143 PJ of gas was produced in 2022. RD_014 (p35 text and Figure E.1)
- Gas production is expected to peak at 170 PJ in 2024, then decline below the 2022 use level (~145 PJ) before 2027, falling to 77 PJ by 2032. RD_014 (p38 text and Figure E.4)
- The Marsden Point Oil Refinery ceased refining on 31 March 2022; from April 2022 crude oil imports fell 100% (to zero — the first time since records began in 1974) while refined product imports rose 159%. RD_014 (p3 text; p40 “F. Oil”; p41 Figure F.1)
- Singapore became NZ’s main oil-product source — 59% of oil-product imports in late 2022 (up 44pp), displacing the United Arab Emirates (down 53pp from 53% in late 2021). RD_014 (p42 text and Figure F.2)
- Battery electric vehicles were about 1.0% of the total fleet at end-2022, doubling since mid-2021; 20,896 BEVs were registered for the first time in 2022 (twice as many as 2021), and about 6% of new car registrations were full EVs. RD_014 (p19 text and Figure C.4; p3 quick facts; p32 transport section)
- Coal production was 2.6 million tonnes (66.0 PJ) in 2022 — the lowest in 33 years; total coal use fell over 30%; coal consumption was 992 kt; NZ returned to net coal exporter after importing for the first time in 2021. RD_014 (p48 “Coal — At a glance”; p50 text and Figure G.2; p51 text)
Neobiome Intelligence relevance
D01: Provides the 2022-actual NZ electricity generation mix and capacity baseline that immediately precedes RD_001’s 2023 figures — useful for establishing trend rather than a single-year snapshot (renewable electricity 87% in 2022 → 88.1% in 2023; self-sufficiency 74% → 73%). The 14% assumed solar-PV capacity factor (p9) is a documented national methodology input that can sanity-check community-scale solar yield estimates against CR_010. The default electrical transformation efficiency factors (Table B.1: hydro/wind 100%, gas combined-cycle 55%, gas single-cycle 30%, coal/oil/biogas 30%, wood 25%, geothermal/waste heat 15%) are reusable conversion assumptions for any NI generation-mix calculation.
I06: The 74% national self-sufficiency figure, the record-low 12% oil self-sufficiency, the Marsden Point closure (100% refined-fuel import dependence from April 2022), and the 17% downward revision of gas 2P reserves together quantify the structural national energy vulnerabilities a self-sufficient community is insulating against. Box C.1 (Cyclones Dovi and Gabrielle) documents concrete grid-resilience failures — Redclyffe substation flooding cutting Hawke’s Bay/Gisborne off the national grid — that motivate community-scale energy autonomy.
I09: The 30% renewable share of total final consumption (all-time high) versus 87% renewable electricity marks the electrification/transport frontier: agriculture and transport remain oil-dependent (Figure D.2). Confirms NZ’s grid is among the most renewable in the world (only Norway, Iceland, Costa Rica higher), so community renewables are directionally aligned with the national trajectory.
Relationship to RD_001: RD_014 (2022 data) and RD_001 (2023 data) are consecutive editions of the same MBIE series. RD_001 supersedes RD_014 for current-year figures; RD_014 should be cited where a 2022 baseline or a two-year trend is needed, not as the latest value. The two are complementary on the time axis, not duplicative.
Research targets
Documents to retrieve
- The full Energy in New Zealand data tables (downloadable workbook from the MBIE webpage cited on the publication’s inside cover) — gives the underlying numeric series behind the report’s figures, enabling exact extraction of the energy-balance cells rather than reading values off charts.
- The companion MBIE Energy Balance Tables and electricity statistics spreadsheets — national, machine-readable time series for generation mix, capacity, and sector consumption.
Research gaps
- A national household / per-dwelling electricity-demand benchmark by region (this report gives sector totals in PJ but not per-household figures); cross-reference with the EECA end-use datasets (RD_007) and the NZ household baseline (CR_009).
- A national time series of installed grid-connected solar-PV capacity (MW) — this edition states the 14% capacity-factor methodology but not the 2022 installed-capacity figure that RD_001 later reports (372 MW for 2023).
- A national distributed-generation / behind-the-meter solar register to complement the supply-side aggregates here.
Connections
Links to
Referenced by
Sources (3): OT_121 · RD_026 · RD_039
SSI indicators (2): I06: Resistance to External Shocks · I09: Environmental Sustainability
EDT domains (1): D01: Renewable Energy & Storage Systems