Paper Mill at Kawerau wins at Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards, NZ
Kawerau geothermal plant with Norske Skog Tasman paper mill in the background, New Zealand (source: Mighty River Power)
Alexander Richter
1 Sep 2015
Norske Skog Tasman, a paper mill at Kawerau, New Zealand won Large Energy User Initiative of the Year as part of the Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards in New Zealand. The company operates a geothermal plant for power and heat production.
Reported locally, Norske Skog Tasman has received a “Large Energy User Initiative of the Year” as part of the Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards in New Zealand.
The company has been operating a 20.5 MW geothermal power plant since 2013 and “developed a production optimisation model and become the electricity market’s first ‘dispatchable demand’ participant. The company is a pulp and paper company. Not only using power but also heat makes this a great showcase of geothermal energy utilisation.
As described by the NZ Herald, t”he Tasman mill at Kawerau uses roughly 500 GWh of electricity annually, about 230 GWh of which is generated on site. Electricity accounts for about half the variable cost of newsprint production; reducing its use and cost is key if the mill is to remain a low-cost operator.”
By operating the Topp1 plant, Norske Skog Tasmancan produce power at a variable cost which is up to a third lower than comparable power to be bought on the power market. Recently the company increased the net power output through reducing parasitic load from 20.5 to 21.5 MW.
Norske Skog Tasman has a staff of around 170 staff and 35 contractors, with economic benefits to the local community at Kawerau and the forestry, engineering and transport industries in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
Source: NZ Herald
