Consumers congratulate Genesis Energy

Wednesday, 4th July 2007
Media release by the Major Electricity Users’ Group (MEUG)

Consumers congratulate Genesis Energy on successful commissioning of gas-fired e3p power station

“The Major Electricity Users’ Group (MEUG) congratulates Genesis Energy on the successful completion of the commissioning of the new e3p gas-fired power station at Huntly,” said Ralph Matthes, Executive Director of MEUG. Last Friday evening the lead contractor Mitsubishi Corporation completed commissioning tests and officially handed the power station over to Genesis Energy.

“The Huntly e3p station is a high efficiency combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) that following testing is capable of running base load at 400 MW, ie in excess of nameplate capacity of 385 MW.

Huntly e3p will join an existing fleet of power stations in New Zealand connected or adjacent to the transmission grid comprising 7 other thermal fuel power stations, 6 large cogeneration power
stations, 35 hydro power stations, 5 geothermal power stations and 3 wind farms.

“As New Zealand’s population and economy grow we will need to keep building more power stations. Having a diverse portfolio of generation plant based on a mix of hydro, geothermal, wind and thermal fuels is important to maintain and improve security of supply as well as the flexibility to employ the lowest cost mix of technology and fuels as circumstances allow.

“Assuming New Zealand continues to have a favourable gas discovery strike rate, MEUG expects that over the next decade at least two further gas-fired CCGTs are likely to be built in Auckland. Those are Otahuhu C (Contact Energy) and Rodney (Genesis Energy). Building new base load thermal generation is important for security of supply to Auckland because that region has by far the largest concentration of consumer demand and is expected to continue to have the largest absolute growth in demand volume.

“Over and above these new thermal power stations New Zealand will need further geothermal, wind and hydro power stations, and additional transmission grid investment to meet the requirements of generators that need to export to demand centres. As technology develops energy efficiency and demand side response will also have a growing, although still relatively modest role.

“Even after combining the capacity of the existing and expected new thermal power stations, New Zealand will still have one of the lowest percentages of thermal power stations in its national fleet compared to most other countries,” concluded Mr Matthes.

ENDS

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