Rival power plans generate heat

By CHRIS DANIELS

State-owned power companies were sniping at each during the Utilicon power conference in Auckland yesterday.

The clash started when Genesis Power chief executive Murray Jackson said reserve power generation was badly needed in New Zealand.

Genesis had therefore offered to recommission the mothballed Marsden B power station, which is owned by fellow state-owned enterprise Mighty River Power.

"Mighty River Power said they're on track to do that," said Jackson.

Not quite, said Mighty River chief executive Doug Heffernan.

There was no way Marsden B - a 250MW station mothballed immediately after it was built in 1979 - could be brought quickly back into service.

The oil-fired station would cost too much to restore and keep in fuel.

"We have looked at a number of options around Marsden B which Murray [Jackson] was offering to do for us, but we'd already done. He's a bit late on the draw there."

"The short answer is that there is no way Marsden B could be commissioned within the time you'd need to have it provide some capacity into the New Zealand market, let alone have you got fuel to do it?"

"It's hugely expensive and we certainly looked at it several months ago and it's not a flyer."

Heffernan said Marsden B could not have generated power this year, and would be economic only if "someone throws a huge subsidy".

The Marsden site was allocated to Mighty River Power when it was set up in 1999. Heffernan said it had enormous potential for New Zealand.

One reason it was given to Mighty River and not Genesis was so there could be some competition for building of thermal power stations.

"I can see exactly why Murray would want to get his hands on it to knock us out."

Jackson also said he had been asked by Energy Minister Pete Hodgson to increase Genesis Power's coal stockpile, which would be doubled by 500,000 tonnes to one million tonnes for the winter.

A spokesman for Hodgson denied Genesis had been directed to buy coal, but said it had been asked to explain how it was planning to have the Huntly power station available to "run hard" in the event of a dry winter.

The minister could not direct Genesis to buy coal or do anything else.

Jackson said other power companies could be asked to make a similar stockpile, which would help the country should there be another dry winter.

Hydro generators should be asked by the Government to keep water aside, which could not be used to generate power without official permission.

But Heffernan, whose Mighty River Power runs the hydro stations on the Waikato River, said Jackson's comments about keeping water as a reserve were "nuts".

Controlling Lake Taupo, as suggested, would lead to less supply, not more, as it operated within a very narrow range.