28 June 2022
Nicky McLean
By email:
[FYI request #19587 email]
Dear Mr McLean
Thank you for your five requests, received on 3 June 2022, for information regarding the Turitea
wind turbine farm, the Ohariu wind turbine farm, the Ngawha B power station, the Tararua wind
farm, and the Te Rere Hau wind farm, under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Request 1:
“A new wind turbine farm has been running for some months at Turitea, generating
electricity and supplying the grid; further enlargement is proposed as well. Please
supply the half-hourly data on generation (and consumption) from the start of its supply
to the grid, as is established practice for other generators.”
This information can be found at
https:/ www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Datasets/Generation/Generation_MD. See also
https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Datasets/Metered_data – in particular the
Embedded_generation and Grid_import folders. The files going back to January 2020 have
recently been regenerated, as explained at
https://forum.emi.ea.govt.nz/thread/turitea-missing-
from-generation_md-csv-files/.
Request 2:
“The wind turbine farm at Ohariu ("Mil Creek") generates electricity that is recorded in
various ways by data files offered via your web page
https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Datasets/Metered_data, such as for generation
and consumption. Those two data series for Ohariu, as supplied, start with September
2015, but, the wind farm commenced generation in May 2014. So, the first request is
for the supply of the missing data on its early operation.
Secondly, the generated power has an effect at the Wilton substation (via the local
connection to it) in that power is metered as being fed back to the grid at 33KV. The
feedback data series starts in July 2014, and I don’t believe that there is any other
source for such power besides Ohariu, yet the Ohariu data series (as currently
supplied) show no generation until September 2015. What supplied this earlier
feedback? Is the accountancy wrong?
It may well be that there had been no feedback until sufficient wind turbines became
operational at Ohariu, presumably some time after May 2014. So, the second request
is for the early feedback data from the time it actually began, which may have been in
July 2014.
Hopefully, with the earlier generation data the accounts can then be in balance rather
than in error.”
This information is not held by the Electricity Authority (Authority) and would need to be
created in order to respond to your request. The Authority does not have any additional data
that can be used to resolve the issues you have highlighted. The information the Authority
receives from Transpower is the same as what is published.
Request 3:
“Via your organisation's web site
https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Datasets/Metered_data, half-hourly data on the
generation (and consumption) of electricity at the Ngawha A and Ngawha B power
stations are provided, starting with May 2021. However, the new Ngawha B power
station commenced supplying power to the grid months earlier. Please supply the
corresponding data series from the time that Ngawha B commenced, up to May.”
This information is also not held by the Authority and would need to be created in order to
respond to your request. The metered data published on EMI is as received from
Transpower.
Request 4:
“Via your organisation's web site
https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Datasets/Metered_data, half-hourly data on the
generation (and consumption) of electricity at various places are provided, in particular
for wind farms on the Tararua Range. There have been multiple developments, but this
concerns the first, and is associated with the Linton substation as the notional metering
position. The supplied data series starts with the year 2000, abruptly, with high values,
showing that many turbines are in operation not just the first one or two. Further, the
supply from the grid at Linton drops prior to the start of the year 2000, indicating that
local generation is partially offsetting the load supplied from Linton. Such as from the
early operation of the wind farm.
This request then is for the missing early generation data for the first Tararua wind
farm.”
This information is also not held by the Authority and would need to be created in order to
respond to your request. The metered data published on EMI is as received from
Transpower.
Request 5:
“Via your organisation's web site
https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Datasets/Metered_data, half-hourly data on the
generation (and consumption) of electricity at various places are provided, in particular
for wind farms on the Tararua Range. There have been multiple developments, but this
concerns the rather unusual Te Rere Hau wind farm. Its early form was small, and its
generation was apparently limited by the capacity of the connection to Linton.
Nevertheless, data were supplied, but, that series stops abruptly with March 2008. In
the same year, the wind farm was greatly enlarged and connected instead to the
national grid, with operation beginning in September 2008 as recorded by a new data
series, and working up gradually from small values, below those from the tail end of the
first series.
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This request is for the missing half-hourly data from the first stage of Te Rere Hau,
extending from March 2008 up until its cessation, if it has ceased. That is, ceased
supplying to Linton by the local connection. This could proceed even as the new grid
connection becomes used for the massively larger expanded wind farm. Alternatively,
the existing turbines of the original collection could have been disconnected from
Linton and converted to the new grid connection. Information on this would help clarify
matters.”
This information is also not held by the Authority and would need to be created in order to
respond to your request. The metered data published on EMI is as received from
Transpower.
The Act enables people to request official information from government agencies, including the
Authority. However, the Act only applies to information that is already held by Authority. There is no
obligation on the Authority to create information in order to respond to a request. The Authority
therefore refuses requests two, three, four, and five under section 18(g) of the Act because the
Authority does not hold that information.
Some historic metered data, which may be of interest to you, can be found at
https:/ www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Wholesale/Datasets/_AdditionalInformation/ArchivedDatasets/201310_
CentralisedDatasetFinal.
I note you have made several requests at this time and have also previously made a number of
requests regarding data. The Authority is dedicated to continuously improving the way we collect
and publish data. Our improvements are determined by priorities at the time, noting the need to
service a variety of stakeholders interested in the information we produce. Where appropriate and
to the extent possible, the Authority proactively releases information that is likely to be of interest to
the public. We wil continue to proactively release data based on sector-wide benefit. The Authority
does not have extensive resources available to respond to repeat individual data requests.
Much of the data you have requested is historic, releasing it lacks any significant wider value, and
is not in the public interest. Other users of the EMI website appear to be content with the data
currently available. In addition, where you are requesting data, I encourage you to send these
requests to
[email address].
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss this decision with us, please feel free to contact us by emailing
[email address].
Yours sincerely
Sarah Gillies
GM Legal, Monitoring and Compliance
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