Tuesday, September 3, 2013

New Zealand:

Ngatamariki Power Station is Complete (Press Release)

Mighty River Power today marked the completion and handover of its new 82 MWe Ngatamariki power station – expanding the Company’s geothermal production to more than 40% of its total generation and contributing to strong earnings growth.

Mighty River Power’s Chief Executive, Doug Heffernan, said the plant near Taupo was completed within the $475 million forecast detailed in the Company’s prospectus and had proven performance above design specifications in testing over the past three months.

“We’re delighted with a project of this scale – the largest of its type in the world – to see it successfully completed, and with power output now expected to be 3 MWe (4%) higher than spec, which will be positive for the plant’s economics and cash flow into the future. We also expect the project to come in slightly under the total cost forecast.”

Dr Heffernan said the new station would add close to 700GWh of annual electricity production, equivalent to the electricity use of about 80,000 households. With the completion of the new Ngatamariki station, he said the company now had about 2,800GWh or 40% of its production coming from low operating cost renewable geothermal which “gives us additional strength and resilience in our core business”.

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