Meridian has reassessed the maximum capacity of the generating units at Manapōuri Power Station. The maximum capacity of each unit can be increased by 6.5MW to 131.5MW rather than the current 125MW per unit.
This increase in unit capacity is dependent on Transpower approval of a dispensation.
Overall station output remains the same at 800 MWs due to discharge consent limitations. But the additional unit capacity will be valuable when at least one of Manapōuri’s seven units is on outage. As an example, with one unit on outage the maximum station capacity would be 789MW (131.5MW x 6 units), up 39MW on the current maximum of 750MW (125MW x 6 units).
Meridian is making this additional capacity available in the hope that it may help with any tight supply and demand conditions that arise on the electricity system, for example during winter peak periods.