Water connoisseurs pick the best ...

Press, 13 June 1984, Page 35

Water connoisseurs pick the best ...

The control building for the Manapouri hydro electric power station at West Arm, Lake Manapouri. Protruding from the left of the building is the lift shaft which goes underground to the power house that controls seven turbines and seven 100,000 kilowatt generators.

A spiral access tunnel winds 2130 metres underground to the power house. At the upper left, part of the outdoor switchyard station is visible.

Stairs at the lower left lead to the intake structure which draws the water for the turbines. From the turbines the water is discharged through a 10-kilo-metre tail-race tunnel into Deep Cove, Doubtful Sound. The Manapouri power station, which lies in the rugged forested country of Fiordland, uses the water from both Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau. It has the largest hydro electric energy capacity in New Zealand, with an annual output of 4410 gigawatt hours.

Peak power output at any one time is about 590 megawatts. Two 161-kilometre transmission lines from West Arm supply the Bluff aluminium smelter and the national power grid at Invercargill. Construction work on the scheme began in 1963 and the last of the seven generators was commissioned in 1971. The Te Anau control structure was commissioned in 1974 and the Manapouri lake control structure in 1977.