Coal fills the gas and hydro-electricity generation gap

Coal used to generate electricity increased sharply between April and June as it filled in for a lack of gas to cover falling hydro lake levels, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment statistics show.The quarter covers the period where the scramble for gas was under way, but before wholesale electricity prices hit record-high sustained levels in July and August.Coal-based electricity generation increased to 883 gigawatt hours (GWh) for the quarter, compared to 144 GWh of generation in the same quarter last year, data from the Energy Qu...