Waipapa power plant
| Waipapa Power Station | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| location | ||
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| Coordinates | 38 ° 17 ′ 31 ″ S , 175 ° 41 ′ 1 ″ E | |
| country |
 New Zealand
|
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| place | Waikato region | |
| Waters | Waikato River | |
| power plant | ||
| owner | Mercury NZ Limited | |
| operator | Mercury NZ Limited | |
| Start of planning | 1953 | |
| construction time | 1955 to 1961 | |
| Start of operation | 1961 | |
| technology | ||
| Bottleneck performance | 51 megawatts | |
| Standard work capacity | 330 million kWh / year | |
| Turbines | Kaplan turbines 3 × 17.9 MW | |
| Generators | 3 × 17 MW | |
| Others | ||
| Website | www.mercury.co.nz | |
The power plant Waipapa ( Waipapa Power Station ) is a hydropower plant on the North Island of New Zealand .
Origin of name
In the Māori language, the name " Waipapa " is composed of the words " wai " for "water" and " papa " for "flat rock" and possibly means "river across the plain" or "river over the flat rock" .
geography
The Waipapa Power Station is the sixth power plant in a chain of eight hydropower plants on the Waikato River . The power plant is located 17 km southwest of the city of Tokoroa and can only be reached via Waipapa Road , which runs in a north-south direction , which connects to Whakamaru Road to the south and provides access to New Zealand State, which is around 25 km away from the power plant Highway 30 has.
history
As early as 1943, the area of today's Lake Waipapa dam was selected for a dam project. However, the challenges of building a dam and using government funds for geothermal projects did not make the final decision for the dam project until ten years later, in 1953. Construction work began in 1955, and in November 1958 the Waikato River was diverted into a new bed so that the actual dam could begin. In 1961 the construction project was completed and in April of that year the first generator could be connected to the country's power grid. The other two generators followed in June and November of the same year. In 2001 all of the power plant's turbines were overhauled, also to improve efficiency.
As of 2020, the power plant will be operated by the majority state-owned company Mercury NZ Limited , formerly Mighty River Power .
Barrier structure
The barrier structure is designed as a gravity dam made of earth material and extends over a length of 75 m on the southeast side. The 34 m high structure has a width of 106 m at its base and a crown width of 9.2 m. But before the dam could be built, the subsoil had to be reinforced with 4600 m³ of concrete. The power plant is located below the dam. The 8 m wide flood relief of the structure is located on an island separated from the actual dam on the northwest side and blocks the water over a length of around 45 m.
power plant
The Waipapa Power Station has an installed capacity of 51 MW and an average annual electricity generation of around 330 GWh . The three generators driven by Kaplan turbines are designed for an output of 17 MW each.
Reservoir
With the completion of the barrier structure, the water of the Waikato River was dammed up to form Lake Waipapa . The lake, which extends over an area of 1.6 km², has a usable volume of 6.2 million m³ of water for electricity generation with a variable storage target of 124.27 m to 128.89 m
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Hydro Stations : Waipapa - Overview . Mighty River Power , archived from the original on June 16, 2007 ; accessed on January 9, 2020 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Topo maps . Land Information New Zealand , accessed January 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Lake Waipapa . In: NZ Topo Map . Gavin Harriss , accessed February 9, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d Hydro Stations : Waipapa - Technical . Mighty River Power , archived from the original on June 16, 2007 ; accessed on January 9, 2020 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Hydro Generation . Mercury NZ Limited , accessed January 9, 2020 .
- ↑ STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE OF FRASER SCOTT WHINERAY. (PDF 2.3 MB) Waikato Regional Council, p. 19 , archived from the original on January 26, 2015 ; accessed on January 9, 2020 (English, original website no longer available).
- ^ Waikato Lake Levels . Mercury NZ Limited , accessed January 9, 2020 .
