News
Wel Energy joins race with $140m wind farm notice
Hamilton's Wel Energy has jumped on the wind farm bandwagon with the announcement of a $140 million farm near Raglan.
March 11, 2006
by Marta Steeman
in stuff.co.nz
That comes hot on the heels of Tasmanian developer Roaring 40s announcing this week that it was starting investigations into a $150 million wind farm in the Cairnmuir Mountains near Cromwell.
Wel, an electricity lines company whose network extends through the Waikato, plans to build a 72-megawatt wind farm on the Wharaurao Plateau, 10 kilometres south of Raglan and 30km west of Hamilton.
Wel hopes to have it operating by 2008.
Almost 1000 MW of wind farms have been given consent or are in the process of seeking resource consents or defending them against appeals.
Most of those have yet to be built and most are in the North Island. Their developers hope to start operating the farms between 2007 and 2012 depending on how long it takes to secure resource consents.
Meridian Energy's $380 million 210 MW wind farm near Makara on the outskirts of Wellington is in that category, with an aim to start running in 2008.
In addition, more than 1000 MW of wind farms are being discussed and investigated but are not yet at the stage of seeking resource consents. Wel's project is one of those, as is the Cairnmuir Mountains project and TrustPower's 300 MW Mahinerangi wind farm project near Dunedin.
Wel is the third electricity lines company to leap into wind farm development. That will put more pressure on the Government to relax restrictions on electricity lines companies who want to build power plants.
The industry reforms of the 1990s limited electricity lines companies' ownership of power plants and placed restrictions on how they run them. Wel Energy's chief executive Mike Underhill said under the Electricity Industry Reform Act the Wel board could not take overall governance responsibility for the wind farm. "We will not do this project if we cannot get the board accountable."
Wel would be seeking an exemption to the act.
The legislation required the wind farm, as a generation business, to be separately run from the electricity networks business.
Wel was happy with financial separation which was done through separate books for each business. Under disclosure rules it would have to show the lines business was not cross-subsidising the wind farm.
"But to take the ultimate accountability away from the people who are accountable for the performance of the company is absolute nonsense."
Mr Underhill said the Government was looking at changes to the legislation but Wel wanted changes to be tackled fairly soon.
Electricity lines companies were also not permitted to buy hedges – contracts for electricity – under the legislation, he said. They wanted that changed so they could buy hedges to cover periods when wind farms were not producing because of a lack of wind.
Two other lines companies, Unison and Eastland Networks, are also seeking exemption to the separate governance rules for their planned wind farms in Hawke's Bay.
Wel's Te Uku wind farm will comprise up to 24 turbines of 3 MW. The project is conditional on the outcome of a $2.5 million feasibility study and securing resource consents.
The company estimated it could produce electricity from Te Uku for between 7 cents a kilowatt-hour and 8c a kWh, Mr Underhill said.
The mushrooming of wind farm plans in New Zealand is competing with the plans of thermal generators to build new plants.
The two biggest wind farm developers so far have been Meridian Energy and TrustPower.
Roaring 40s, owned by Hydro Tasmania, the Tasmanian state power company, is teaming up with lines companies Unison and Eastland Networks for their Hawke's Bay projects.
Wel, an electricity lines company whose network extends through the Waikato, plans to build a 72-megawatt wind farm on the Wharaurao Plateau, 10 kilometres south of Raglan and 30km west of Hamilton.
Wel hopes to have it operating by 2008.
Almost 1000 MW of wind farms have been given consent or are in the process of seeking resource consents or defending them against appeals.
Most of those have yet to be built and most are in the North Island. Their developers hope to start operating the farms between 2007 and 2012 depending on how long it takes to secure resource consents.
Meridian Energy's $380 million 210 MW wind farm near Makara on the outskirts of Wellington is in that category, with an aim to start running in 2008.
In addition, more than 1000 MW of wind farms are being discussed and investigated but are not yet at the stage of seeking resource consents. Wel's project is one of those, as is the Cairnmuir Mountains project and TrustPower's 300 MW Mahinerangi wind farm project near Dunedin.
Wel is the third electricity lines company to leap into wind farm development. That will put more pressure on the Government to relax restrictions on electricity lines companies who want to build power plants.
The industry reforms of the 1990s limited electricity lines companies' ownership of power plants and placed restrictions on how they run them. Wel Energy's chief executive Mike Underhill said under the Electricity Industry Reform Act the Wel board could not take overall governance responsibility for the wind farm. "We will not do this project if we cannot get the board accountable."
Wel would be seeking an exemption to the act.
The legislation required the wind farm, as a generation business, to be separately run from the electricity networks business.
Wel was happy with financial separation which was done through separate books for each business. Under disclosure rules it would have to show the lines business was not cross-subsidising the wind farm.
"But to take the ultimate accountability away from the people who are accountable for the performance of the company is absolute nonsense."
Mr Underhill said the Government was looking at changes to the legislation but Wel wanted changes to be tackled fairly soon.
Electricity lines companies were also not permitted to buy hedges – contracts for electricity – under the legislation, he said. They wanted that changed so they could buy hedges to cover periods when wind farms were not producing because of a lack of wind.
Two other lines companies, Unison and Eastland Networks, are also seeking exemption to the separate governance rules for their planned wind farms in Hawke's Bay.
Wel's Te Uku wind farm will comprise up to 24 turbines of 3 MW. The project is conditional on the outcome of a $2.5 million feasibility study and securing resource consents.
The company estimated it could produce electricity from Te Uku for between 7 cents a kilowatt-hour and 8c a kWh, Mr Underhill said.
The mushrooming of wind farm plans in New Zealand is competing with the plans of thermal generators to build new plants.
The two biggest wind farm developers so far have been Meridian Energy and TrustPower.
Roaring 40s, owned by Hydro Tasmania, the Tasmanian state power company, is teaming up with lines companies Unison and Eastland Networks for their Hawke's Bay projects.
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