KEY POINTS:
Contact Energy's New Plymouth gas-fired power station will be shut for at least six months for maintenance and to remove asbestos recently discovered there.
Chief executive David Baldwin said Contact was investigating the cost and timeframe for remedial work and could not rule out the possibility of the plant shutting permanently.
The plant was commissioned in 1976 and today is used as a reserve generator only when demand is high.
It has three units which each produce 100 megawatts of power. It is not used as a peaking plant as it takes around eight hours to fire up.
Contact last week announced it was spending up to $2 billion on a 650MW wind farm in West Waikato and a 100MW gas-fired peaking plant at Stratford that will be operational by 2009.
A month ago asbestos was discovered under insulation pipe lagging in the plant's turbine hall and boiler room and the plant was closed to investigate removal options.
The power station has maintained for many years an asbestos register which recorded where asbestos was known to be located. Procedures are in place to safely manage this asbestos.
The recent discovery was in a part of the plant not referred to in the register, as it was understood to be asbestos free.
Mr Baldwin said the company now had more information regarding the options for undertaking remedial work, which if undertaken, would see two of the generating units returned to service by May 2008.
"Some staff would remain on site while any remedial work is carried out, others would be redeployed to other projects and the remainder would be on special paid leave, while remaining available for the possibility of generation resuming."
Mr Baldwin said asbestos was widely used in the construction of power stations in the 1960s and 1970s.
"The presence of asbestos in itself does not represent a problem, provided it is contained. For the vast majority of people who work or have worked at New Plymouth, any exposure to asbestos would be very low, and unlikely to cause health problems."
Mr Baldwin said any other former staff who have questions about possible historic exposure to asbestos could call the New Plymouth Power Station.
The Department of Labour's Occupational Safety and Health service had visited the site and been satisfied with the asbestos management, Contact said.
- NZPA
