‘Big revision’ of electricity, coal in Energy Plan

Press, 1 September 1982, Page 1

‘Big revision’ of electricity, coal in Energy Plan

Parliamentary reporter

Electricity and coal have the combined capacity to meet New Zealand’s increasing demands for energy, according to the 1982 Energy Plan, tabled in Parliament yesterday.

The Energy Plan focuses on three sectors — the high dam at Clyde on the Clutha River, the expansion of. coalmining in Waikato, and future uses of the Maui gasfield. Whether a second aluminium smelter is built, the Marsden B power station would need to be commissioned on coal and the Clyde dam would be needed regardless (between 1988-90) to restrict the need for excessive oil-fired electricity gem eration.

The Energy Plan calls for both new coal mines to be opened within the next 10 years — three in Waikato and an open-cast mine in Buller.

.Clyde and Marsden B were required at similar dates and activity on these projects needed to be maintained at priority level.

Practical considerations favoured the preferential development of South Island hydro, said the Energy Plan.

This would require the commissioning of the remaining proposed stations on the Upper Clutha within the

planning period, irrespective of the commitment of new load to electricity-intensive industries. But in view of the relatively high costs of development, the role of geothermal energy in future electricity supply needed to be reviewed, the Energy Plan said.

The Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, said the 1981 Energy Plan contained some big revisions of expected energy demand, particularly over electricity and coal. It studied the electricity situation both with and without a second aluminium smelter. It looked at workforce and capital require? ments for the main energybased projects. It also began a big project to examine long-term energy supply and demand. It looked specifically at the depletion of the Maui gasfield after 2000, the impact of adverse trends in the international oil market, and the development of coal resources.

This study was expected to be completed in time for the 1983 Energy Plan. The 1982 Energy Plan pre-

dieted that household energy demand would rise 1.6 per cent a year, that there would be a 15 per cent increase in the population in the next 20 years, and that the gross domestic product should increase about 73 per cent in the same period. While some aspects were controversial, the 1982 Energy Plan was an extremely valuable document, Mr Birch said.

The opening of a new open-cast coal mine on the Buller field would be required by 1991, according to the Energy Plan. Other possible developments depended upon the results of mining and export market investigations.

North Island coal production would have to increase threefold in the next 10 years to meet the expected demand. Three new Waikato mines would be needed.

To achieve the necessary expansion, about $6OO million would be needed and by 1992 the work-force would be about 1700 people. The Energy Plan said the coal was needed because of the requirements of New

Zealand Steel, to fuel coalfired power stations, and because it was going to take longer to build up production from the Huntly East and West underground mines to planned levels in the difficult mining conditions ' experienced. Total South Island coal supply was expected to rise from 1,010,000 tonnes in 198283 to 1,295,000 tonnes in 2000OL

In the Buller district, local demand from cement and industry would be supplied from the Denniston underground mines producing 80,000 tonnes a year. A new opencast mine would be developed in 1991 to ensure supply after the underground mines were exhausted.

In the Greymouth district, underground production of 80,000 tonnes a year would continue from the Strongman mine until 1991 and from the Liverpool mine until 1985.

Any future investment in a new underground mine, near Greymouth, would depend on the results of the joint venture and the costs of mining, the Energy Plan said. •