TrustPower Media Statement
7 February 2012

TrustPower Procceds With Esk Hydro

TrustPower has announced that it is about to begin construction of a new hydro electricity generation scheme in Hawkes Bay.

The scheme, to be known as Esk Hydro, will consist of two separate generating stations that draw on separate tributaries of the Esk River. Using special Pelton turbines designed specifically for use on high-head (pressure) the scheme will deliver 3.8 MW, and supply enough power for the equivalent of 1,800 average
New Zealand Homes

The Esk hydro scheme is TrustPower's first generation project in the Hawkes Bay region and will directly support the company's retail business including those customers in Wairoa and Poverty Bay and increasing numbers of clients in the wider Hawkes Bay region.

The project was initiated nearly 10 years ago by the owners of the land on which the scheme will be built. TrustPower acquired the rights to the project more than five years ago and since then worked with a very clever and practical New Zealand based team including electrical engineers, turbine designers, civil engineers, turbine fabricators and the civil construction team to produce an innovative kiwi designed and constructed solution that builds on TrustPower's existing competence in owning and operating small hydro to medium schemes.

The scheme is fully resource consented, and follows the same environmentally sensitive design strategy as Trust{Power's proposed schemes for the Arnold River on the South Island West Coast, and the Wairau River in Marlborough, in not requiring the damming of any waterways, and the use of relatively small and compact intakes and powerhouses.

The project will also be the first significant scale generation project in the region that does not rely on Transpower's National Grid, and will therefore increase the efficiency of electricity supply to Hawke's Bay.

The transmission solution was a key milestone for the project, requiring collaboration across many divisions of the Unison Group, both with TrustPower and with TrustPower's consulting engineers.

TrustPower expects the $13 million scheme, which has an expected annual output of 15GWh, to be commissioned in June 2013.

Contractors engaged for the project are as follows:

Civil Construction - MAP Projects
Generators/turbine plant and equipment - AIE Hydroworks
Transmission - Unison Consulting
GRP penstocks - Maskell
Steel penstocks - Pipes NZ
Civil; Design - SKM

ENDS

BUDGET 2012:
Parliament Debate Live - Video Of Budget 2011
Keith Ng Interactive Graphic: How the Budget Breaks Down
BUDGET 2012 - FULL COVERAGE: Reports / Analysis - Press Kit - Reaction (from everybody) - Previews (from everybody) - Pre-Budget Announcements

Gordon Campbell: On the Budget’s Spreadsheet Victories

It wasn’t as if expectations were sky high, exactly. Chances are, it was always more likely that we’d be seeing Bigfoot rampage through the Beehive lock-up than catch a glimpse of a credible growth agenda from this government. More >>

Sludge Budget Report - Short The Dollar! MEMO: To international bankers FROM: C.D. Sludge Please short the dollar! It'll be good for both you and us. And you know you want to. Greexit, Eurogeddon... watch out... flight to quality and all that. Follow your instincts. The NZ Debt Management Office has been so surprised at the unprecedentedly low interest rates that it can borrow at that it has already entirely pre-funded the 2013 fiscal deficit - all $8 billion of it! More >>

Pattrick Smellie Comment: Doddling along the best we can hope forCriticising Budgets for lacking vision or imagination is like shooting fish in a barrel, but even so, this year's Budget again feels like a missed opportunity. Perhaps it's the intrusion of real world needs that means the government couldn't make better political use of the $558.8 million it expects to gather in its first partial asset sale. More >>