Oct 12 - Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand

Te Rere Hau wind farm will soon be operating at full capacity as new underground cables are installed to connect it to the national grid.

A new alliance with electricity network company Powerco means the Te Rere Hau joint venture can now expand to the next stages of development, which began in September last year.

Chairman of NZ Windfarms Derek Walker said the alliance was a major step in the wind farm's development in supplying electricity to the local lines network.

"Completion of the connection will remove the present constraint to Te Rere Hau operating at full capacity as it is built."

A Powerco spokesperson said with reticulation and transmission in wind farming, the smaller the cable, the smaller amount of electricity could pass through it.

In May this year, a NZ Windfarms report stated that Te Rere Hau's project capacity was only at 2.5 megawatts, with the total potential capacity on completion said to reach 48.5 megawatts generating enough electricity to 18,000 homes.

The new work would upgrade the cable to ensure the wind farm, located on the Tararua Ranges, could run its turbines at full speed, supplying more electricity.

Powerco will design, build, own and operate the cables which connect the wind farm's wind turbines to the TrustPower substation on North Range Road and the national grid.

Te Rere Hau is one of three wind farms connected to Powerco's electricity network.

Powerco acting chief executive Nigel Barbour said often the best wind farm sites were in remote or challenging terrain and building the cables to connect with the national grid could be time consuming and difficult.

"One of the major challenges for any business looking to set up a new wind farm, or in fact any new generation project, is the connection back to the local network or national grid," Mr Barbour told the Manawatu Standard.

Powerco covers the upper central and lower central North Island, servicing approximately 400,000 consumers.

Powerco would not disclose the cost of the cable installation.

(c) 2007 Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.