Forum Archive Index - May 2004

["tennyson@caverock.net.nz" <tennyson@caverock.net.nz>]

In 1999 the Clyde Dam and what seemed at the time to be various 'rag 
tag' energy assets already wrapped up in a package the government 
named 'Contact Energy' were flogged off.  There was a section of the 
NZ community that breathed a sigh of relief.    The Clyde Dam had just 
required hundreds of millions of dollars to be fettled on surrounding 
geological stabilization.  Furthermore there was no guarantee that the 
money spent was all that would be needed.  'Stratford' and 'Otahuhu A' 
were old stations on their last legs and New Plymouth was aging and 
uneconomic to run as a base-load station.   Even the medium-term 
viability of the Wairaki geothermal station was in doubt. 

Fast forward five years and things look very different.    No more 
problems have surfaced with the Clyde dam.  In fact it has just been 
given resource consent to operate at a flow rate nearly 20% higher 
than before.    The Roxburgh dam, which has been operating for nearly 
50 years, and truth be told is also subject to 'geological risk', continues 
to operate near faultlessly.   A brand new gas turbine power station 
(Otahuhu B) has been built by Contact.  'Otahuhu B' is sighted right on 
the doorstep of New Zealand's largest market, Auckland, superceding 
outdated plant elsewhere.    And the geothermal fields in the centre of 
the North Island seem to have settled down (or not in this case), which 
means that plenty of power from that renewable thermal source is still 
available.   So what was the 'problem bucket company' of the New 
Zealand power industry has really come out of its cocoon.

Nevertheless the real question is not 'where is Contact now?', but 
'where does Contact go from here?'.    That is the question I want to 
address next.

--
Message sent by Snoopy 
on Pegasus Mail version 4.02
----------------------------------
"Stay on the upside of the downside, 
Anticipate the anticipation!"




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