Power from the earth as Te Huka 3 fires up its turbine
Thursday, 17 October 2024
Contact’s new $300m geothermal power station has been plugged into the national grid for the first time as the energy company puts its Te Huka 3 station through its paces.
At full capacity, Te Huka 3 will produce 51.4MW of electricity - enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of 60,000 homes.
During a three-week testing period with Transpower, approximately 15MW of power will initially be fed into the grid, gradually increasing to 51.4MW over the testing period.
Contact chief executive Mike Fuge said the station is expected to be fully operational by the end of this year and will be Contact’s seventh geothermal power station and one of the first 100% carbon neutral geothermal power stations in the world.
Taking just over two years to build, Fuge said Te Huka 3 was “a significant demonstration of our ability to invest, build and deliver world class assets for the benefit of all New Zealanders”.
“This marks a huge moment for the team at Te Huka 3, who have, for the past two years, worked tirelessly from the initial ground-breaking on site to building a fully operational renewable power station. That is no mean feat.”
The binary cycle power station splits geothermal fluid into steam and liquids where they are used to heat up pentane to drive Te Huka 3’s turbine.
Fuge said once Transpower’s tests were complete, Contact will carry out further performance and reliability testing, including a 30-day reliability run, to confirm that Te Huka 3 can run continuously and reliably at 51.4MW over a month.
“It’s a really exciting time for geothermal energy,” he said.
“It’s often been the unsung hero of power, but now it is really coming into its own as it plays a crucial role in New Zealand’s transition away from fossil fuels while helping to keep the lights on.”
Geothermal generation reached a record high of 2143GWh generated between April and June in 2024, and now provides 19% of the country’s energy during the autumn months.
Boosting this figure was the commissioning of Contact's power station at Tauhara, which first started contributing to the national grid in May.
Te Huka 3 is the third of three geothermal power units on Contact’s Centennial Drive site in Taupō and is expected to displace around 190 tonnes a year of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of removing over 70,000 cars from New Zealand’s roads.
Te Huka 3 will be zero-carbon with its design reinjecting its emissions back into the reservoir, making it one of the first 100% carbon neutral geothermal power stations in the world.