Final wind turbine installed

Monday 18 October 2004

Final wind turbine installed as Te Apiti development nears completion

Meridian Energy’s Te Apiti wind farm development in the Tararua ranges reached a major milestone at the weekend, with the completion of the project’s 55th and last wind turbine on Saturday.

The final component put in place was the 70m-diameter rotor, the installation of which was delayed for several days last week by high winds.

Meridian spokesman Alan Seay says the project is on course for full commissioning later this month, when Te Apiti will be capable of generating to its full 90 megawatt (MW) capacity.

“The installation of the last turbine marks the completion of a very successful development programme, which has seen the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm consented and constructed in a little over a year.

“This is despite the major storm and flooding in February which resulted in the loss of a substantial number of working days. There has been 1784mm of rain since the project started; we lost a key bridge for transporting material to the site, but thanks to the efforts of everyone involved it has made very little difference to the timetable.”

Of the completed turbines, 45 are now fully commissioned, and delivering power to the national grid.

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Generating Assets Waitaki River system

The Upper Waitaki system begins at Lake Tekapo, a storage lake with about 800 GWh of storage capacity, which represents about 22 percent of the country’s hydro storage.

Water passes through the Tekapo A power station and is diverted by a purpose-built hydro canal to Tekapo B station on the shores of Lake Pukaki.

Lake Pukaki has some 1600 GWh of storage capacity – about 44 percent of New Zealand’s total. Water is drawn by canal from both Lakes Pukaki and Ohau to supply Ohau A , B and C power stations, before being discharged into Lake Benmore.

After passing through the Benmore power station, the water flows down the Waitaki River through the Aviemore and Waitaki stations.

Manapouri/Te Anau system

The combined storage of Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri is 380 GWh. The Manapouri power station lies 178m underground on the western shore of Lake Manapouri, and is accessed via a 2km road tunnel.

After passing through the station the water flows into Doubtful Sound via two 10km-long tailrace tunnels.

All of the stations are designed to be remote controlled from a control centre at Twizel.

Australia

Meridian Energy Australia Ltd owns the Southern Hydro power stations in Victoria.

The ten stations have a total generating capacity of 540MW, with about 940 GWh of output.

The company also owns hydro generation facilities at five small dams in New South Wales and Victoria, generating a total of 62MW.
Te Apiti turbine/2

Mr Seay says quite apart from being a new source of clean, renewable power, Te Apiti has provided a major tourism bonus for the region. Meridian has provided a public viewing area near one of the turbines, and a car counter installed by Tararua District Council has recorded 1257 cars visiting the site during the last week of September alone.

A study carried out by Destination Manawatu has estimated the wind farm could be worth up to $7 million to the region in tourist activity.

The Danish-built 1.65MW wind turbines are the largest currently in use in New Zealand, and each of them can generate enough electricity to power up to 900 average homes.

When fully commissioned, Te Apiti as a whole will generate enough power to supply some 45,000 homes.

Meridian Energy is currently investigating another major wind farm development at White Hill, near Lumsden, in Southland.

ENDS

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