Marsden B rebirth on track despite Government station plans

By CHRIS DANIELS energy writer

Plans for recommissioning the Marsden B power station are surging ahead, despite the Government's decision last week to build a new power plant in Hawkes Bay.

Owner Mighty River Power hopes the oil-fired Marsden B will be ready by winter 2005.

Resource consents are needed before work can begin on rebuilding the chimney and installing new pipes and oil storage facilities. New control room electronics are also needed.

The 250MW station was built near the Marsden Pt oil refinery, 37km southeast of Whangarei, in the late 1970s but was mothballed before generating any electricity.

State-owned Mighty River will keep the station in reserve for dry years.

The Government said last week it would spend $150 million on a new oil distillate-fired station, likely to be built at Whirinaki, on the site of an old, similar station that was dismantled.

The site was picked mainly because of existing resource consents for a station, which mean it can be ready for next winter.

It will be much smaller than Marsden B and more costly to run.

The Government's new Electricity Commission will be asked to sign contracts with power generators for dry-year electricity that can be called upon when hydro lakes are low.

Contact Energy has plans for a small station to be built alongside its plant at Otahuhu and fuelled with oil distillate or gas.

Both Contact and Mighty River will try to sign deals with the commission that will pay for their stations to sit idle, ready to be used only when prices on the wholesale electricity market become too high.

The commission will impose a levy on the power firms that will inevitably be passed on to consumers.