Plans for power plant at refinery

New Zealand Refining Company plans to build a $120 million electricity generation plant at the Marsden Pt Refinery.

The company's general manager, Thomas Zengerly, said local and regional councils were behind the project.

He said if the new plant proved viable it would provide an efficient, independent and more environmentally sustainable source of energy both to the refinery and to Northland from 2007 onwards.

The company said the project became a possibility after the Government awarded it 1.2 million carbon credits as part of the Projects to Reduce Emissions scheme.

The company will decide by next April whether to proceed with the project.

Zengerly said the viability of the project would hinge on external factors such as the availability and price of natural gas and biomass, which would be needed as fuels to top up the gas produced by the refinery.

If it goes ahead, the facility will consist of two 42-megawatt gas turbines creating 690 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year.

The refinery would use 290 gigawatt-hours of that electricity, exporting 400 gigawatt-hours back to other customers in the region.

The New Zealand Refining Company is developing the project with HRL, an Australian energy, technology and project development company.

The plant would be built, owned and operated by HRL, with a long-term contract to supply electricity and steam to the refinery.

All of the gas from the refining operations will be used to power the new turbines. The turbines would also require about five petajoules of natural gas a year.

The refinery at present uses 1.2 million tonnes of steam a year in its refining operations.

Under the new plan, heat from the new turbines will be recovered with heat recovery steam generators, and converted to 860,000 tonnes of steam.

A multi-fuel fired boiler will be installed to produce the remaining amount of steam, with the refinery's existing boilers providing the balance and backup.

This boiler can use biomass, asphalt or other solid fuels as an energy source.

- NZPA