New Zealand's largest hydroelectric power station, Manapōuri, has received a timely upgrade with the commissioning of a new transformer, boosting its generation capacity significantly. This comes after a two-year period of operating at reduced capacity due to faults in two of the station's seven transformers.

The new transformer, which arrived in October after a trans-Tasman journey, has been successfully installed and is now operational. Meridian’s General Manager of Generation, Tania Palmer, highlighted the importance of this achievement for New Zealand’s electricity supply: “It’s been a long road of investigating faults, testing solutions, and ultimately procuring, transporting, and installing this new unit. Now, we can generate 128 more megawatts from Manapōuri than we were able to at this time last year.”

The commissioning of the new 104-tonne transformer brings Manapōuri’s generation capacity from a restricted 640 megawatts (MW) to around 768 MW—just shy of its 800 MW limit under consent conditions. This improvement will help stabilize New Zealand’s electricity supply, particularly during peak demand periods.

The logistics of delivering the transformer were impressive, involving a combination of truck and barge transportation across Lake Manapōuri—the first time such a large piece of generation equipment had been barged across the lake.

A second replacement transformer is set to arrive in late 2025, promising further capacity improvements for the Manapōuri Power Station.

Source: business.scoop.co.nz