Energy Minister Peter Hodgson brokered the deal, between State-owned enterprises Genesis Power and Solid Energy, which should see Solid Energy coal keeping Genesis' Huntly power station operating at or near its 1000MW maximum capacity.

Hodgson's intervention shows how dangerous the government believes the mounting energy crisis could become, with low hydro lake levels and inflows, coupled with the country's inability to markedly increase gas supplies to gas-fired stations.

Lake levels are presently marginally worse than those which preceded the 2001 winter power crisis, and the aging Maui field is unable to "rescue" the country as it did two years ago when its gas production was consistently 115% above normal rates throughout the winter crisis period.

However, it would suit the Maui partners to run the 24-year-old field as hard as possible if required this winter, as that would maximise condensate recovery, though that would be at odds with Hodgson's stated aim of having the field run through to the contracted 2009.

Even with the gas-coal Huntly station running on coal, and Contact Energy burning fuel oil instead of gas in some units of the New Plymouth station, this may not be enough to save New Zealand from widespread power rationing, involving hot water heating cuts at the least. .

On Friday Solid Energy agreed to supply 800,000 tonnes of coal to Huntly in the coming year from its underground and opencut mines in the Waikato, compared with 340,000 tonnes supplied in 2001-02.

New Zealand homes are not yet feeling the pinch, though major electricity users, such as Pacific Steel and aluminium producer Comalco, are already being forced to cut back production as electricity spot prices spike of up to 10 times their usual level.