New Zealanders to benefit from keeping Huntly in operation

28 April 2016

New Zealanders to benefit from decision to keep Huntly in operation

Transpower today welcomed the announcement by Genesis Energy, supported by a number of other generator companies, to keep the Huntly power station in operation. Huntly remaining in operation alleviates some challenging situations in 2019 when it could have been difficult to meet the electricity needs of the country. This follows the retirement of a number of thermal generators this year, and the proposal for two further generating units at Huntly to be closed in 2018.

Transpower Chief Executive Alison Andrew said that as owner and operator of the National Grid and operator of the wholesale electricity market, the company had run numerous scenarios about what the closure of these generation plants meant for meeting the energy needs of the country.

“Over the past six months, we have released a number of reports and assessments outlining the challenges that the country faced from 2019, should Huntly close and not be replaced by any new generation sources,” she said.

“There were times in 2019 that we forecast a shortfall of energy, which could have been difficult to manage. In extreme cases (for example a dry year when the hydro lakes are very low), we could have experienced a situation where consumers would have been asked to conserve their power usage.”

“It’s pleasing that the industry has recognised the issue that the country was facing, and worked together on a solution to help provide stability for New Zealand’s power supply,” she said.

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