Meridian Energy to Invest $40 Million on the Refurbishment of Waitaki Hydro Plant in New Zealand

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Perth, Australia)--The $40 million Waitaki Hydro Refurbishment Program, which is being undertaken by Meridian Energy Limited (Wellington, New Zealand), will underpin the last major investment program by the company for the next few years. The two-stage program involves refurbishments to the Waitaki Dam and the hydro plant itself, which currently features six 15-megawatt (MW) hydro units that produce a total capacity of 90 MW.

"The Waitaki refurbishment will give Meridian more generation flexibility, while still operating within our water consents," said Mark Binns, the chief executive officer or Meridian.

Waitaki is one of the three hydro power stations in the Waitaki hydro system, and it represents the oldest power station built by manual labour as a "make-work" programme during the 1930s depression. The other two hydro stations are Benmore and Manapouri.

Manapouri, the largest hydro station in New Zealand, produces 850 MW of electricity with seven conventional Francis turbines. Manapouri is an underground hydroelectric power station on the western arm of Lake Manapouri in Fiordland National Park, on the South Island of New Zealand. The hydro plant underwent a $100 million half-life refurbishment during 2002-2008. The refurbishment program included overhaul and upgrade services for the governors and generator controls, some of which were 20 to 30 years old.

Meridian Energy commenced the refurbishment program on Waitaki Hydro Plant in April 2013, and recently finished upgrades and repairs on one of the six units at the plant. The company is preparing to kick off the refurbishments on Unit 3, where most of this work will be done by the in-house team at Meridian Energy.

The first of the seven units at the plant, which was decommissioned in 1990, also will be recommissioned as part of this refurbishment program. Meridian will start work on Unit 1 in the second quarter of 2014. Along with Unit 1, Meridian plans to upgrade the protection for all other units. The timelines for each unit outage will be determined at later stages.

Meridian Energy proposed building a 260-MW hydro station along the north bank of the Lower Waitaki River during 2012. However, in 2013, the company announced that it would suspend the project due to the state of the electricity market in New Zealand. Meridian Energy will monitor the demand for electricity in the region and pick up development at a later stage, as needed.

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