Buller in line for power station

Buller is the front runner among several sites proposed by Solid Energy for a coal-fired power station.

Chief executive Don Elder said Buller had one of the two best business cases Solid Energy had seen.

If there was going to be a coal-fired power station in the next four or five years, Buller would probably be the first.

Based on the cost of supplying electricity, it would be feasible to have one power station in Buller and another in Grey. Southland, Canterbury and the North Island were other possibilities, Dr Elder said.

The stations would burn lower-grade coals, which sold for only half the price of Solid Energy's high-grade export coal.

Solid Energy's Stockton mine, north of Westport, had only six to 10 million tonnes of high-quality export coking coal left, but had 40 million to 50 million tonnes of lower-grade coal.

A 100MW station would cost about $200 million to build in Buller, and would burn up to 400,000 tonnes of coal a year. Buller already had the lines to transmit the power.

For relatively low cost, the transmission system could be upgraded to take power from a 150MW station.

Modern, clean-burning coal technology would ensure low nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide emissions.

A Canterbury University study has shown that West Coast coal could be the answer to New Zealand's recurring electricity problems.

National power supply would not meet demand in a dry year, said the Review of Electricity Supply and Demand, a joint project between the university's Centre for Advanced Engineering and energy consultants Sinclair Knight Merz.

The report said more power stations were urgently needed to provide reserve capacity in dry years, and suggested a coal-fired station in the South Island as one remedy.

It identified Stockton coalfield as the most logical site, but Dr Elder said the plateau was too environmentally sensitive.

A more likely site was flat land up to 30km north of Westport.

- NZPA