Te Mihi Power Station is a two-unit 166-MW geothermal plant currently undergoing commissioning on New Zealand’s North Island. It replaces the Wairakei Power Station constructed in 1958—but with a much smaller environmental footprint. The double flash technology selected produces ~25% more power from the same amount of geothermal fluid that is currently used at Wairakei. For its continuing commitment to renewable geothermal energy, Contact Energy Ltd.’s Te Mihi Power Station is the winner of POWER’s 2013 Marmaduke Award for excellence in power plant problem-solving. The award is named for Marmaduke Surfaceblow, the fictional marine engineer and plant troubleshooter par excellence.
Contact Energy Ltd. (Contact) is one of New Zealand’s leading developers of sustainable power generation systems, with a diverse portfolio of geothermal, natural gas, wind, and hydroelectric assets. In terms of revenue, Contact is one of five large New Zealand power companies. Contact owns and operates 10 plants located throughout the country, producing ~25% of New Zealand’s electricity demand. Four of its facilities are geothermal plants located in the Central North Island.
In early 2007, Contact announced plans to invest up to $1 billion in the construction of new geothermal plants in the Taupo region, located near the center of the North Island. (All amounts in US$; US$1 = NZ$1.28 at press time.) The latest addition to Contact’s renewable portfolio is the two-unit 166-MW (159-MW net) Te Mihi Power Station (Te Mihi).
Contact CEO Dennis Barnes says its investment in Te Mihi reflects the company’s view that geothermal is New Zealand’s most cost-effective new baseload generation. Barnes identified the importance of Te Mihi to ratepayers when he said, “The additional 114 megawatts is expected to be required by the market by 2013 as economic growth resumes and will also contribute to lowering Contact’s average cost of generation.” The total cost of Te Mihi is estimated to be close to $623 million. A second project at Tauhara is in the development pipeline, with other projects seeking permits or in the reservoir exploration phase.
To develop Te Mihi, Contact engaged the McConnell Dowell Constructors Ltd., SNC-Lavalin, and Parsons Brinckerhoff New Zealand joint venture (MSP JV) to build Te Mihi. The engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract was signed with MSP JV in February 2011 for two 83-MW geothermal power units to be constructed 5 kilometers (km) from the existing Wairakei geothermal power station.
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