Waitaki Hydro Scheme
The Waitaki Hydro Scheme is a hydropower project in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand . It consists of seven interconnected reservoirs , four canals and eight hydropower plants , all of which are used to generate electricity.
geography
The Waitaki Hydro Scheme covers the reservoirs of Lake Tekapo , Lake Pukaki , Lake Ohau , Lake Ruataniwha , Lake Benmore , Lake Aviemore and Lake Waitaki with the run-of-river power plants Tekapo A , Tekapo B , Ohau A , Ohau from north to south and from west to east B , Ohau C , power plant Benmore , power plant Aviemore , and power plant Waitaki . The Waitaki Hydro Scheme's catchment area covers an area of almost 97 km 2 and extends over the districts of Mackenzie , Waimate and Waitaki .
history
In 1904, PS Hay , who worked in the New Zealand Government's Public Works Department , realized the potential of the Waitaki River for hydroelectric power generation. But it wasn't until the 1920s that it was possible to start such a large project. At that time, the power plant on Lake Coleridge could no longer meet the power requirements of the South Island and an expansion of power generation on the South Island became necessary.
Actual work on the first Waitaki River dam project began in mid-1928, when the term Waitaki Hydro Scheme was not yet born. The work on the dam of the future Lake Waitaki was also intended as a job creation measure, because the unemployment rate was high at the time of the economic crisis and the dam project could provide work for up to 1200 workers over a long period at peak times. But the working and living conditions were tough, especially in winter, because the dam was not built using construction machinery, but rather with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and the physical strength of the many workers. The accident rate was correspondingly high.
The dam was followed by others, such as that of Lake Tekapo , built between 1938 and 1951, those of Lake Pukaki and Lake Ohau , built in the 1940s, and the dams of Lake Benmore and Lake Aviemore , which began in 1958 and 1962 and their power stations were commissioned in 1965 and 1968, and the last was Lake Ruataniwha , which was completed between 1978 and 1981.
Kurow
When the dam and power station on Lake Waitaki were built, the construction workers found shelter in Kurow , 8 km downstream . There in the 1930s the doctor DG McMillan convinced the workers to pay a small amount into a fund every week and receive free medical care in return. The system found favor with Arnold Nordmeyer, member of the then Labor government, and in 1939 it was adopted for the entire country.
Otematata
For the construction workers who were needed to build the dams on Lake Benmore and Lake Aviemore , the village of Otematata was established in the late 1950s and houses were built for the workers and their families. At the height of construction in 1963, Otematata had a population of around 4,000, but the Ministry of Works relocated the workers' accommodations further northwest to Twizel in the late 1960s . Many of the houses that remained in Otematata were sold as holiday homes and are now used for tourism.
Twizel
The place Twizel was founded in 1966 and served as inn for the many construction workers for the construction of the Upper Waitaki hydro scheme were needed. Eleven years later, the town had a population of around 6,000 with around 1,000 students in the primary school, numbers that the place would never reach again. After the construction work was completed in the mid-1980s, the number of inhabitants decreased to around 1,300.
Monitoring and control
All eight power plants of the Waitaki Hydro Scheme are monitored and controlled by a control center, which is located 2.3 km south of the center of Twizel and is called the Twizel Office .
Web links
- Meridian Energy : Waitaki hydro scheme flyover . Youtube , November 17, 2011, accessed on January 13, 2020 (English, 1:00 min video).
Individual evidence
- ^ Upper and Lower Waitaki Catchment . Land Air Water Aotearoa , accessed January 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Waitaki Disctrict Council Ward Area . (JPG; 943 kB) Waitaki Disctrict Council , archived from the original on October 14, 2008 ; accessed on April 25, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ a b c d e f Discover the Waitaki Hydro Scheme . (PDF; 1.9 MB) Meridian Energy , November 2008, archived from the original on February 17, 2011 ; accessed on January 17, 2020 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Gavin McLean : Waitaki Dam . In: New Zealand History . New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage , 2013, accessed January 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Our Twizel office . Meridian Energy , accessed January 17, 2020 .
