Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built the main high-pressure gas turbine, a 179-tonne low-pressure turbine, a 98-tonne high Pressure-intermediate pressure turbine, as well as the new power station’s 355-tonne generator.

All components are due to leave Auckland next Sunday night on a five-night trip - one of the largest heavy load journeys yet seen in New Zealand - to the Waikato site where they will sit alongside Genesis’ existing 1000MW dual-fueled (gas or coal) power station.

The power output of the main gas turbine, model M701F is rated at 270MW, with the balance of the 385MW total station output generated by the heat recovery steam generator. The M701F is one of the best-selling industrial gas turbines in Japan.

Prime minister Helen Clark officially launched the NZ$520 million “e3p” (Energy Efficiency Enhancement Project) last February, saying it was one of the largest infrastructure projects currently underway in New Zealand.

The e3p plant – which will be approximately 55% more energy efficient than the existing Huntly station – is due to be commissioned in late 2006-early 2007. It will run as a baseload generator fuelled from gas supplied from the offshore Taranaki Pohukura and Kupe gas fields.