Kawerau and Nga Awa Purua Geothermal Power Station Projects, New Zealand

摘要

Mighty River Power's nominal 90 MW Kawerau Geothermal Power Station has been the largest geothermal project in New Zealand for more than 20 years. Fuji Electric has played a major role in this project for which Sumitomo Corporation was the turnkey EPC Contractor. Fuji Electric has engineered and manufactured principal equipment such as the steam turbine, generator, condenser, MV & LV electrical switchgear, etc., procured balance of plant equipment and materials, supervised construction and commissioned the project. The project has successfully satisfied its contractual performance criteria, construction work and commissioning have achieved the required quality standards, and the plant was put into commercial operation on August 30, 2008, more than one month ahead of contractual time limit. Success of the Kawerau project has led Fuji Electric to work on a next project, the 132 MW Nga Awa Purua Geothermal Power Station at Rotokawa, New Zealand, where construction is underway and commercial operation is expected to start in 2010. The Nga Awa Purua Geothermal Power Station is a joint venture between Mighty River Power and the Tanhara North No.2 Trust. This paper introduces and presents an overview of the Kawerau and Nga Awa Purua geothermal projects, technical features of the plant systems and components, and our experiences in supervising the construction and commissioning the projects. Technical features of the plant systems are divided into the Steam Separation System (SSS) which separates and produces purified steam from geothermal two-phase fluid, and the Power Generation Facility (PGF) which converts steam energy to electricity, as in boiler-based steam power plants.