"The positive attitude and high standard of planning and engineering displayed by Beca was an instrumental component in the success of the project in particular with the schedule and technical challenges we were faced with." Paul Ware : Mighty River Power.
The Kawerau Geothermal power plant was a priority development project for Mighty River Power, forming part of their strategy to meet the government's goal for New Zealand's power generation to be 90% sustainable by 2025. The NZ$300 million geothermal power station is intended to provide 100 megawatts of electricity, boosting the country's geothermal capacity by 25%.
A fast track design and build project, Beca was engaged as principal sub-consultant to Hawkins Construction, and provided structural, civil, geotechnical, architectural, and fire engineering design services for the site development, civil, building, equipment infrastructure.
The site was relatively challenging, being very close to the Tarawera River, and susceptible in places to liquefaction. The turbine hall building and the turbine and generator table support structure needed to support a 70 tonne overhead gantry crane, and a generator and turbine weighing a combined 325 tonnes respectively, requiring 30 m deep bored piles extending through loose sand to below groundwater level.
The civil and structural elements also included cooling towers, various support structures for balance of plant, pits, pad foundations, platforms, ladders and hand rails, and extensive site development, including roads, drainage, stormwater and thermal water retention ponds, potable water reticulation and site sewage treatment.
The structures and civil infrastructure works are an integral part of the process plant. A key challenge for Beca was gaining an understanding of the plant processes in a very short timeframe, in order to produce a fully integrated design that would address the complex needs of the generating equipment and balance of plant.
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