Te Huka 3 geothermal power station in New Zealand starts grid supply
Commissioning work ramps up at Contact’s Te Huka 3 geothermal power station (source: Contact Energy)
Carlo Cariaga
15 Oct 2024
Commissioning has started for the Te Huka 3 geothermal power plant in New Zealand, targeting operations at 51.4-MW capacity by the end of 2024.
Contact Energy has announced that the Te Huka Unit 3 geothermal power station has started supplying power to the grid for the first time. The facility will be running at 15 MW during a three-week testing period with Transpower before gradually increasing to its full capacity of 51.4 MW, equivalent to the power requirement of about 60,000 homes.
The testing period will then be followed by formal generator compliance testing to Transpower’s system operator code requirements to confirm Te Huka 3 can provide electricity to the grid efficiently and safely. Te Huka 3 is expected to be fully online by the end of 2024.
First announced in 2022, Te Huka 3 was built with an investment of NZ$300 million and is designed to be one of the first 100% carbon-neutral geothermal power stations in the world. The binary cycle power station uses a process where geothermal fluid is split into steam and liquid, which are then both utilized to heat up the pentane to drive the turbine. All of the site’s potential emissions will be reinjected back into the reservoir.
“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,” said Mike Fuge, CEO of Contact Energy. Of note here is that the development of the site took just a little over two years from project approval in August 2022 to a target of commercial operations by the end of 2024.
“It’s a really exciting time for geothermal energy,” added Fuge. “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.”
Te Huka 3 will thus be the second geothermal power station that Contact Energy brings online this year, following the commissioning of Tauhara in August. Together, the two facilities will have a combined installed capacity of 203.4 MW, which will be a very significant contribution to the total global installed geothermal power capacity for this year.
Source: Contact Energy
