Stratford Power Station

Story

The Stratford Power Station is a 575 MW power station located east of Stratford, Taranaki, New Zealand. It comprises one combined cycle unit and two open cycle gas turbine units and is owned and operated by Contact Energy.HistoryIn June 1976, the construction of a 200MW power station was completed on the Stratford Power Station site. This comprised four 50MW units, each a Pratt and Whitney TwinPak of two FT4 gas turbines. The FT4 engine is the stationary version of the Pratt & Whitney JT4. This plant was fired on natural gas.The four 50MW units were decommissioned and removed in 2001.The FT4 units were owned and operated (in turn) by NZED, NZE, ECNZ and Contact Energy.Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation of climate changeIn 1993, the Environment Minister Simon Upton established a board of inquiry under the Resource Management Act to hear the application for a resource consent for Electricity Corporation of New Zealand's (ECNZ) proposed 400 megawatt Stratford power station in Taranaki.In February 1995, the board of inquiry concluded that the station’s operation would significantly increase New Zealand’s emissions of carbon dioxide and make it more difficult for the Government to meet its obligation to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to their 1990 levels as committed to under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The board of inquiry recommended that ECNZ must establish a carbon sink "sufficient to eventually store in perpetuity the equivalent quantity of carbon emitted from the site over the term of the permit".