Meridian Energy (ASX:MEZ) and New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) have agreed that NZAS will ramp up production from 16 June 2025 to bring the current demand response to an end early.
The company is targeting a completion date of 11 August 2025 rather than 25 November.
The demand response option in place is known as ‘option 4’, which is normally 185MW but currently modified to 50MW.
Meridian will next have the ability to call for demand response ‘option 3’ (100MW) or option 4 (185MW) under the demand response agreement between the parties to take effect from 12 April 2026.
Meridian will next be able to call demand response ‘option 1’ (25MW) no sooner than 60 days after this ramp up finishes, and ‘option 2’ (50MW) no sooner than 90 days after this ramp up finishes.
CEO designate Mike Roan says New Zealand’s hydro storage is looking much healthier than it was just a few weeks ago, “so we are now confident regarding security of supply this winter”.
“As a result, we want NZAS to get back to business,” says Roan.
“This is another example of how willing NZAS is to support New Zealand’s electricity system while making some of the purest, renewable aluminium on the planet and we are hugely appreciative of that.”
Aluminium is a strong, lightweight, flexible, non-corrosive and almost infinitely recyclable metal. Those properties make it widely used in the transport, construction, packaging, and electrical industries.
It can be rolled, extruded or cast as pure aluminium or aluminium alloys.
Most of NZAS’s metal is cast to customer requirements – either pure aluminium or aluminium alloys – with about 90% exported to global markets.
Aluminium is a key structural material and has a significant role to play in a carbon-constrained world. Because of its demand for use in lightweight vehicles, it’s the fastest growing material used in the automotive sector.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: New Zealand Aluminium Smelters
