Turbine fire at ageing wind farm causes five hour shutdown over weekend

A fire at one of New Zealand’s oldest wind farms on Sunday led to half of the turbines at the 161 megawatt (MW) Tararua generator being shut down for five hours.

A turbine caught fire at the Tararua wind farm in the lower North Island, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand dispatched four crews around 5pm.

Half of the turbines in the wind farm were shut down while the damaged machine was “removed from service, and all turbines were back in operation by 10pm, said Mercury COO of generation Kevin Taylor in a statement. 

“The cause of the fire is not yet known and will be investigated over the coming days,” Taylor said.

“No other turbines have been impacted, and there is no indication at this stage that further turbines are affected.”

The New Zealand fire service says the fire on the turbine burnt out by the time crews arrived but there were a few spot fires on the ground that needed extinguishing, with all out by 6.46pm.

The Tararua wind farm, owned by ASX-listed Mercury, is one of a cluster of five wind farm in the Tararua Ranges south of Palmerston North, and is one of the country’s oldest, with stage one starting in 1999 and stage three generating in 2007.

The blaze on Sunday was in the state two section, which came online in 2004 ,and uses turbines that sit atop distinctive steel lattice towers.

With the oldest Tarurua turbines entering their 27th year, Mercury is working on what it will do with the wind farm when it reaches the end of its planned life. 

Taylor says the review is looking at supply chain issues and New Zealand’s energy market to inform the final plan, which will now include the findings of why this turbine caught fire as well. 

“Tararua has operated reliably for more than 25 years, providing a strong base of operational data to inform this work,” he said. 

Mercury’s neighbour on the hills behind Palmerston North, Meridian Energy, is already looking at repowering options for the Te Rere Hau wind farm, a 46 MW wind farm built in 2006 that is being repowered as a 170 MW project with less than half of the number of turbines.

This is not the only time a turbine has caught fire at the Tararua wind farm. 

In 2021 a fire in one turbine caused five to be taken offline for investigation by on-site contractor Vestas.

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