Edgecumbe Cogeneration Station

Edgecumbe Cogeneration Station is Fonterra's and Bay of Plenty Energy's answer to reliable low cost energy

This site provides Fonterra with a reliable on site energy stream for their summer dairy season, while Bay of Plenty Energy (BoPE) is able to service its domestic customers in the winter with excess electricity from the plant.

Edgecumbe Cogeneration Station is wholly owned by BoPE.

• Station Location
• Station Purpose
• Station History
• Benefits of Station
• Generating Plant
• Station Statistics

Location

The Station is located in Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty at the Fonterra Edgecumbe dairy processing factory.

Purpose

Fonterra required a supplier who could meet their energy demands. Bay of Plenty Energy provided a station that meets the factory's entire thermal and electrical energy requirements while also providing enough excess electricity to supply about 4,000 Bay of Plenty customers.

In fact, the facility is an extraordinarily good fit. Fonterras' peak electricity needs are during the warmer summer months when domestic demand is low. Low factory electricity usage in winter allows generation for domestic winter usage when demand peaks.

History

The Station was first commissioned in 1996. As such it was the first cogeneration plant to be built by a New Zealand regional power company within a customer's factory complex.

Benefits

Environmental efficiency can be achieved by using new generation technology. Smaller "embedded" generation units allow savings to be made while more efficiently using input fuel.

By producing heat and electricity onsite, losses due to transportation of the electricity or conversion into heat/cooling or kinetic motion are avoided. These savings not only bring about a lower end energy price for consumers, but mean there are fewer emissions into the environment and consequent fuel savings for future generations.

Cogeneration involves the combustion of fuel to produce two forms of energy output (typically heat or steam for manufacturing use and electricity).

Natural gas is typically used to drive gas turbine generators equipped to with a heat recovery boiler, which captures the thermal energy from the turbine's exhaust and uses it to make steam.

The efficiencies of a cogeneration plant versus a conventional thermal plant (e.g. Huntly Thermal Station) can be gauged by the diagram on the right.

Generating Plant

The Edgecumbe Cogeneration Station consists of two General Electric Corporation (GEC) Typhoons rated at 5 MW each.

The plant produces up to 60 tonnes an hour of steam for use in the Fonterra milk processing plant.

Statistics

Ownership	100% Ownership Bay of Plenty Energy (BoPE)
Fuel Supply	Natural Gas
Total MW rating	10 MW
Turbines	2
Gas Turbines Type	2 at 5 MW (GEC Typhoon turbines)
Generator Voltage	11,000 Volts
Rated Steam Output	250,000 tonnes/year
Peak Steam Output	60 tonnes/hour