Southern Generation Ltd Partnership has purchased the Aniwhenua hydro-electric power station on the Rangataiki River in the Bay of Plenty, more than tripling its gigawatt/hour (GWh) sales generation capacity.
The purchase price from Nova Energy was undisclosed, but Fraser Jonker, chairman of Southern Generation and chief executive of Pioneer Generation, said the acquisition complemented Southern Generation's two existing southern wind farms at Mt Stuart and Flat Hill, ''significantly lifting'' the partnership's annual generation sales from 45GWh to more than 170GWh.
''The partners of Southern Generation feel it is a very good time to further scale our renewable generation business, whilst larger generation developments are either on hold or being decommissioned,'' he said in a statement yesterday.
Initially, the previous owner, Nova Energy, will operate the plant under contract, with no loss of jobs.
On the question of why Southern Generation was buying a North Island hydro station, Mr Jonker said assets of Aniwhenua's scale and quality were ''very rarely available'', noting it was difficult to get resource consent for larger scale hydro sites.
''Having both North and South Island renewable assets makes sense commercially, as when combined it ensures diversified generation conditions and lower overall revenue risks for the partnership,'' he said in a statement.
Aniwhenua is one of several Rangataiki River hydro stations, built and commissioned by Bay of Plenty Electricity in 1981 and acquired by the Todd Corp and Nova Energy in 1998.
The Aniwhenua station has two 12.5MW generation units and produces on average 127GWh per year.
