START ON OHAU POWER STATIONS APPROVED

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33611, 13 August 1974, Page 2

START ON OHAU POWER STATIONS APPROVED

(Xew Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 12. The Government has given the Electricity Department approval to build the Ohau B and Ohau C power stations, the final two stages of the upper Waitaki hydro project.

The Minister of Electricity (Mr McGuigan) said in a statement that both would be 212 megawatt stations, capable of generating 970 million units of electricity a year. Ohau B was, planned tn be commissioned in October, 1979,1 and Ohau C in April, 1981. The estimated total cost.l including associated canals and intake structures and a| high voltage transmission sys-i

tem and line termination equipment to link them to the Twizel control station, is $116,095,000, based on 1974 figures. On the completion of Ohau B and Ohau C the annual generation from the Waitaki catchment waters would be more than doubled, “making this very large and reliable source the most productive, electrically, in the country,” Mr McGuigan said. Tekapo B station (160 MW and Ohau A (264 MW are already being built. Existing stations are Waitaki, Tekapo, Benmore and Aviemore. Mr McGuigan said Ohau B

and C would be built to a common basic design, enabling large savings to be made in design time and construction costs. Savings would also result from buying major plant for both stations under combined contracts. The Ministry of Works and Development, as construction agency, would develop proposals for landscaping the area as work proceeded, and the effects of power development on fisheries and wildlife in the area would be kept under review. The Electricity Department would consult the Commission for the Environment on

environmental aspects of the construction, Mr McGuigan said.