Mighty River's Ngatamariki Geothermal Project in New Zealand Reaches Final Stages of Construction

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Mighty River Power Limited (Auckland, New Zealand) is nearing completion of the grassroot, 82-megawatt (MW) Ngatamariki Geothermal Binary power plant, which is 17 kilometres northeast of Taupo in New Zealand. Plant commissioning is expected in August 2013. The project is in the final stages of construction, with two of its four generating units already up and running. The total cost of the project is more than $400 million.

Mighty River is continuing its work with Ormat Pacific (Waikato, New Zealand), which was selected as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and technology provider for the project.

Last year, Ormat Pacific completed drilling on about four production wells, as well as some re-injection wells, to install a steam gathering system. The power plant is being built with four binary units, each with two Ormat turbo-expanders attached to BRUSH generators. Ormat Pacific supplied eight turbo-expander units and Ormat Energy Converter (OEC) technology to develop the geothermal project.

Transfield Services Limited (Auckland, New Zealand) assisted with front-end development of the Ngatamariki project. As part of the agreement, Transfield undertook process study and process technology options, as well as cost estimations, to build the power plant.

Initial exploration at the Ngtamariki project field began in 1985-86, and Mighty River undertook further drilling in 2008-09. The project was granted resource consents in May 2010.

The project was approved in 2011, and construction work at the geothermal field site commenced in 2012. Mighty River completed construction on two of the four units and delivered the first power to the grid in late March 2013.

With the two units in operation, the Ngatamariki plant is now producing up to 40 MW of electricity for the grid. The next two generating units are planned to be brought online in August 2013. Mighty River has plans to expand the power plant in future, based on the sustainability factors of the existing plant.

The company's development portfolio consists of another geothermal project at Taheke geothermal field in New Zealand, called the Te ia a Tutea Project. The site is located near Okere Falls, 20 kilometers northeast of Rotorua, and it is currently in the early approval phase. Mighty River is awaiting landowner consents to proceed with the initial exploration phase. Subject to exploration results, the company and the joint venture partners will determine the quality of the geothermal resources available at the site.

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