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Contact orders 200 MW gas-fired peaking turbines for Stratford
30 April 2008 - Source: Contact Energy and Lindsay Clark - Contact Energy has placed an order for two fast-start gas-fired turbine peaking units which are expected to be generating power by the winter of 2010.
Contact Energy chief executive, David Baldwin, signed an agreement with General Electric to purchase two 100 megawatt (MW) LMS100 gas-fired peaking units. The units will be installed on the site of Contact’s currently disused Stratford power station.
The 200 MW plant will support increasing levels of renewable electricity generation.
Contact also signed a contract with United Group (NZ) Ltd to project manage, engineer, and install the two peaking units, and procure and install the balance of plant required to complete the project. The project will cost approximately $250 million to complete.
Mr Baldwin said the peaking units would be developed in parallel with an underground gas storage facility in the depleted Ahuroa gas field at Taranaki. The facility will enable Contact to store natural gas underground during off-peak periods, such as during the summer, and use it during times when it is most needed, such as during winter peaks.
The gas storage facility is hoped to be operational at the time our new peaking plants enter service, he said.
