An energy boss says predicted rain will take the strain off New Zealand's power supply.

Winstone Pulp plans to close its central North Island pulp and saw mills because of spiking electricity prices, putting more than 200 jobs on the line.

Transpower is now offering power generators early access to emergency hydro-lake reserves - with levels massively below average for this time of year.

Meridian CEO Neal Barclay says rain and snowmelt in spring and summer will raise lake levels.

"As soon as the lakes start filling up, we can start easing more into hydro-generation. We'll certainly see stock prices start to soften quite a lot."

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