Huntly Power Station
Huntly Power Station
By capacity, Huntly is Aotearoa’s largest power station (953MW). It is located close to major population centres, has reliable access to cooling water, coal and gas resources, and benefits from limited transmission constraints.
The iconic, orange-tipped power station has been producing energy for New Zealand for more than 40 years. Huntly is critical to the country’s energy security and will play an interesting role in the future as we move to a low carbon future.
Providing generation and support
The Huntly Power Station can provide base-load generation, while also being able to take advantage of higher prices in the short or medium term. The mix of generating units is likely to change over time as older gas/coal-fired generation units are placed into long-term storage, retired or replaced.
Huntly also plays an important role in supporting financial contracts offered by Genesis to other retailers and large customers as dry period 'insurance', and in providing ancillary services such as frequency and voltage support.
Huntly Unit 5 (previously known as e3p; Energy Efficiency Enhancement Project) uses natural gas as its fuel source, and is able to generate up to 403MW of electricity – enough to power approximately 400,000 households. The gas-fired unit was commissioned in June 2007, and is a high-efficiency combined cycle generator consisting of three major components.
250MW industrial gas turbine made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries HRSG or heat-recovery steam generator – 135MW steam turbine.
There are two 250MW units (gas/coal) with an additional 250MW unit in storage.
The Rankine Units utilize boiler and steam turbine technology and are capable of using coal and gas to generate electricity. The two Rankine Units currently in service were commissioned between 1982 and 1985 and can each generate 250MW. These units have the capacity to operate in a range of roles, including Base-load, Hydro-firming and Peaking.
Unit 6 is a 50.8MW open cycle gas turbine, which was commissioned in 2004. This unit can burn 100% gas or diesel to generate electricity. Unit 6 is operated as a Peaking unit when wholesale electricity prices reach high levels or when it is economic to operate it over short periods.
