Meridian and NZAS reach settlement

Meridian and NZAS reach settlement



Meridian Energy and New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) have reached a negotiated settlement of arbitration proceedings concerning liability payment for electricity.

The agreement reached yesterday (13 October) relates to a 2008 potline outage at NZAS.

Details of the settlement are confidential. Meridian and NZAS look forward to continuing their positive working relationship.

About Meridian Energy

Meridian is New Zealand’s largest electricity generator and currently owns and operates nine hydro stations and three wind farms within New Zealand, and one wind farm in Australia:

• Manapouri power station and eight hydro stations on the Waitaki River in the South Island

• Te Apiti wind farm near Palmerston North

• White Hill wind farm in Southland

• West Wind farm in Wellington

• Mt Millar wind farm, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

• CalRENEW 1 solar farm in Mendota, California

Internationally, Meridian has operations in Sydney Australia and San Francisco California. Meridian recently announced the establishment of a joint venture with Australian energy company AGL to build what will be the southern hemisphere's biggest wind farm in southwest Victoria The 420MW Macarthur wind farm is due for completion in 2013.

Meridian retails electricity to around 188,000 customers throughout New Zealand, which includes households, farms and businesses. It also provides electricity to New Zealand’s single largest electricity user, the Rio Tinto Alcan New Zealand Limited aluminium smelter in Bluff.

Meridian invests strongly in renewable energy development both in New Zealand and offshore and has recently commenced construction on the Te Uku wind farm, in Hamilton, New Zealand.

ENDS

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