Cook Strait cable to have double capacity

Press, 23 February 1989, Page 6

Cook Strait cable to have double capacity

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The capacity of the Cook Strait electricity cable will be more than doubled with the improvement of the HVDC link between the South and North Islands from 600 to 1240 megawatts.

This was announced yesterday by the chairman of the Electricity Corporation, Mr John Fernyhough. He said approval to improve the link had been given by Electricorp and the board of Trans Power New Zealand — Electricorp’s subsidiary that owns and runs the national grid. The improvement programme was due for completion by the end of 1992, at an estimated cost of $568 million.

Contracts would be awarded as soon as possible, Mr Fernyhough said. The contract for the converter station equipment at Benmore, in the South Island, and Haywards, in the North Island, would be finalised with Asea Brown Boveri. The contract for the submarine cables under Cook Strait would be finalised with a consortium between STK Alcatel and Asea Brown Boveri.

Mr Fernyhough said the approximate value of the two contracts was more than $350 million and their New Zealand component would be about $270 million.

Both the Cook Strait cable and its land-based converter plants at Benmore and Haywards

needed extensive maintenance after 25 years of continuous operation. The replacement of existing cables and equipment was expected to account for about 35 per cent of the contract value, Mr Fernyhough said.

The rest of the cost was associated with the capital development programme to increase the HVDC link’s capacity from 600 to 1240 megawatts. The biggest benefit from improving the HVDC link would be more efficient transmission of clean and cost-effective hydro-based electricity from the South Island to the larger markets in the North Island, he said. It would also provide Trans Power with a telecommunication capacity across Cook Strait.