Powering New Zealand from a Wellington wind farm
West Wind technician Tim Clark on top of a wind turbine at West Wind farm in Makara
Photo:
Sharon Brettkelly
When rain poured into our South Island hydro lakes last week, electricity bosses heaved a huge sigh of relief.
They are still wincing from the memories of last winter's energy crunch, when power became dangerously scarce and wholesale prices shot sky high.
"Droughts are no fun," says Meridian Energy chief executive Mike Roan.
"They're inevitable though.
"Our power system has been built with droughts in mind. The scale of the southern hydro lakes, Lake Taupō, the combination of them is there to provide that backup stored energy for and when a drought emerges."
But the past 12 months have been "horrible" with the August drought and loss of gas supply causing wholesale prices to spike.
Heavy spring rain filled the lakes in September, but the drought re-emerged with additional force at Christmas and lingered through April.
Hydro lake flows were at historic lows until heavy rain earlier this month.
Mike Roan, CEO of Meridian
Photo:
Meridian
"If there are problems you want to have, it's too much rain," says Roan.
He tells
The Detail
how the industry is shoring up for future extremes - including proposals to raise lake levels by building higher walls - and why he is quietly confident there will not be a repeat of last year's near-crisis.
What caught industry bosses out last August was the shock news that they had no gas supplies, a backup fuel generation companies had relied on for decades when lake levels were low, says Roan.
"We rely on different forms of energy beyond solar, wind and hydro. The country's relied on gas as its fuel for making electricity and we have become used to having gas available to provide electricity when it doesn't rain.
"What we found out last August was that not only did we have a drought on our hands, but those gas stores, the energy that we thought was available to us, was not.
"That was unexpected and that made it really, really tough."
It also cost Meridian more than $200 million in contracts for alternative backup fuel that it never used, and it did not get that money back.
Roan says generators have been working on sourcing other fuel supplies, including coal, and have brought forward renewable energy projects.
Expect to see a large expansion in solar energy projects in the next five years, alongside more wind farms and the new battery farm in Northland.
Roan says the investment in renewables will start to offset the loss of gas and make for lower energy prices for everyone in about three years.
But he explains why there will not be lower electricity bills for household and business consumers - instead bills will be eight to 10 percent higher annually.
Sharon Brettkelly on top of a wind turbine at West Wind in Makara, Wellington
Photo:
Sharon Brettkelly
The Detail
also braves 50 kilometre per hour winds to climb to the top of a 70-metre wind turbine at West Wind in Makara, Wellington with technician Tim Clark.
Clark describes the dangers of high winds, including flying rocks, and the wear and tear to the turbines on a site that is regarded as one of the world's most productive wind farms.
The former mechanic says it beats working on cars in a garage with a view of a roller door.
"Now you've seen my view, it's the best view in town," he says.
He is still not sick of it after 14 years, even when he goes home with sea legs after sways in the tower in Wellington's famously harsh winds.
"We're lucky, I say, you can get sunburnt while you're eating your lunch."
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