A north-facing visualisation of how the Tauhara Power Station will look after completion. Graphic / Contact Energy
A north-facing visualisation of how the Tauhara Power Station will look after completion. Graphic / Contact Energy
Some 500 jobs will be created as the construction of a new geothermal power station near Taupō ramps up.
Work has begun on Contact Energy's 152MW Tauhara Power Station, which is expected to be up and running in May 2023. Once complete, it will be operated remotely from Contact's Wairakei Power Station north of Taupō.
The Tauhara station, worth $600 million, is a similar design to Contact's 166MW Te Mihi Power Station in Oruanui Rd west of Taupō that was completed in 2014.
The new power station will produce baseload electricity 24/7 and its annual output will be 1300 gigawatts of electricity, 3 per cent of New Zealand's electricity or enough to power 175,000 homes. It will displace 450,000 tonnes of fossil fuel generation, equivalent to removing over 200,000 petrol cars from New Zealand roads.
Contact Energy project director Alan de Lima hosted an industry visit to the power station site during Geothermal Week activities recently, with two busloads of visitors arriving for a visit of about an hour.
At the power station site, situated off Broadlands Rd east of Taupō, production wells have been drilled and the site preparations completed. About 800,000 cu m of soil has been moved so far. Now work has begun on the construction proper, with the piles being constructed for the building that will become the station's turbine hall.
Japanese engineering, procurement and construction contractor Sumitomo Corporation is leading the construction of the power station, in partnership with Fuji Electric and NZ company Naylor Love.
Piling work under way for the turbine hall of Contact Energy's new Tauhara Power Station, a 152MW geothermal station near Taupō. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
At present 50 staff are working at the station, but that number will rise to as many as 500 workers once construction is in full swing.
They will comprised mainly tradespeople, trade assistants, machinery operators, engineers, supervisors, management teams, administrators, technical specialists, and support staff.
Once commissioned, 3000 tonnes of geothermal fluid an hour from six production wells will be piped to a separation plant. There the steam is separated from the fluid at three different pressures to ensure the geothermal resource is used as efficiently as possible. The steam is piped to the turbine hall to generate electricity and the geothermal fluid pumped to a re-injection well.
The site has a lined overflow pond that will collect fluid if for some reason the station cannot operate. It can hold three days' worth or 140,000 cu m of fluid.
Tauhara Power Station project director Alan de Lima (centre) showing industry visitors around the station site. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
De Lima said at this stage there had been no specific plans made to extract minerals such as lithium from the geothermal fluid as Geo40 is doing at the Ohaaki Power Station. But there is extra land available on the Tauhara Power Station site for direct heat users, nearby businesses that use the waste heat for activities such as operating greenhouses and drying wood.
While the new power station is so far just site works and a large hole in the ground, de Lima is confident it will be ready by its projected completion date.
"There's lots to be done in two years."
Electricity generated from the new station will feed into a Transpower transmission line that runs between Hawke's Bay and Wairakei, and there is also a nearby Unison feeder line.
The Tauhara geothermal field extends all the way down the SH1 East Taupō arterial bypass almost to Taupō Airport. Only the northern part of the geothermal field is being used for the power station development, although there is the capacity to extend it further south in future, de Lima said.
