Meridian Gets Two Wind Farms Worth Of New Capacity From Asset Innovations

An ongoing series of innovations is enabling Meridian Energy to squeeze more megawatts out of the company’s existing power stations and deliver more power to New Zealand when it’s needed most.

Over the past three years, Meridian has delivered around 83 megawatts of additional capacity from existing hydro generators through clever engineering advances and an additional 36 megawatts (MW) through smart asset management on existing hydro stations and wind farms. That’s more than the combined capacity of the company’s Te Uku and White Hill wind farms.

“It’s about working smarter with what we’ve already got,” says Meridian GM Generation Tania Palmer. “Every extra megawatt counts, and the more we can find, the more capacity we can ensure is available for Kiwi homes and businesses.”

“For me, this is one of the quickest, lowest-impact ways we can add more flexible capacity while new builds and repowers are still making their way through. It’s basically ‘new capacity’ from what we already have – without new consenting – and it helps keep the system steady as demand grows, especially when wind and solar are low.”

“And we’re not standing still – this is an ongoing effort. A current initiative at our Ōhau C station is focused on getting an extra 2 MW of peaking capacity out of each of the four generating units - enough to power roughly 8,000 homes. Our engineers are also working on applying these changes to the upstream Ōhau B sister station, which would achieve a total of 16 additional MW.”

Meridian is also aiming to achieve more capacity gains by reducing equipment downtime. In one case, changing the scheduled maintenance at Manapōuri Power Station has resulted in an additional 7 MW worth of generation capability that wouldn’t have been otherwise available.

“All those small increases quickly add up,” says Tania Palmer.

Meridian is currently exploring upgrades of Waitaki and Ōhau A, B and C hydro power stations over the coming years, which could deliver more than 80MW in additional generation capacity.

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