Temporary Otahuhu outage

5 June 2008

Temporary Otahuhu outage

Contact Energy yesterday took its 400 megawatt Otahuhu B gas-fired power station near Auckland off line to repair a fault.

A leak was discovered in one of the boiler tubes in the plant’s steam generator system, forcing the closure of the plant while the fault is fixed.

The fault is expected to take approximately four days to repair, however, the actual duration of the outage will not be known until a full inspection of the steam generator is completed, which will be undertaken when the plant has cooled today.

Contact Energy Chief Executive, David Baldwin, said the timing of the fault was unfortunate, given low hydro storage levels in the South Island lakes, but it was essential to fix the fault now.

“We’re working to have the plant back up and running as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we have notified other generators and network companies so that Otahuhu’s capacity might be covered with other generation options over the course of the outage,” he said.

Mr Baldwin said one 100 megawatt unit at the New Plymouth power station was recommissioned yesterday – ahead of schedule - and is currently operating at full load, which will help cover some of Otahuhu’s capacity.

ENDS

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