Mighty River's Geothermal Plant in New Zealand Undergoes Unplanned Outage

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Mighty River Power Limited's (Auckland, New Zealand) Nga Awa Purua power station is currently out of service due to unplanned maintenance and repairs on the unit's steam turbine. Nga Awa Purua is a 138-megawatt (MW) geothermal plant that is being built in a joint venture between Mighty River and Tauhara North No.2 (Taupo, New Zealand) in 65%-35% partnership.

Mighty River detected problems with the turbine blades while performing routine maintenance and inspections in October 2013. The turbine blades were affected by direct exposure to geothermal fluids, which contain a mixture of caustic chemicals that corroded and caused build-up on turbine blades.

According to Mighty River, "The one- to two-week outage on the unit will follow modifications to allow ongoing operation, which has reduced output at the plant to around 95% of normal capacity."

Mighty River Power is performing minor modifications on the turbine, allowing the unit to operate until the permanent repairs are completed. Mighty River is planning major repairs on the turbine over the next 15 to 18 months.

According to the company, this unplanned maintenance has no huge financial impact, as losses are expected to be mitigated by the current wholesale prices and market conditions.

Mighty River plans to perform annual minor maintenance work on the unit through end of 2014 and a major outage in 2016. Nga Awa Purua consists of a 138-MW condensing steam turbine that is attached to a water-to-air cooled generator, which was manufactured by Fuji Electric Company Limited.

The Nga Awa Purua geothermal plant was commissioned in March 2010.

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