The Patea Dam is a high compacted earth fill–type hydroelectric dam in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, constructed between 1979 and 1984. The Patea

Patea

Patea is the third-largest town in South Taranaki, New Zealand. It is on the western bank of the Patea River, 61 kilometres north-west of Wanganui on State Highway 3. Hawera is 27 km to the north-west, and Waverley 17 km to the east. The Patea River flows through the town from the...

 Hydro Electric Scheme first produced power in May 1984. After construction difficulties, wetter than normal conditions had caused a six-month delay. It is operated by TrustPower

TrustPower

TrustPower Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation and electricity retailing company, listed on the New Zealand stock exchange.TrustPower is New Zealand's fifth largest electricity generator and the fourth largest electricity retailer , serving 260,000 customers throughout New Zealand...

.

The dam is 82 metres tall, the fourth highest in New Zealand. It was the first dam constructed using tertiary sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 and siltstone

Siltstone

Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...

 as fill materials. The dam impounds Lake Rotorangi

Lake Rotorangi

Lake Rotorangi is the largest lake in the New Zealand region of Taranaki. The reservoir was created in 1984 by the damming of the Patea River.- History :...

, which is the longest man-made lake in New Zealand (46km). With three 10,000 kW

Kw

kw or KW may refer to:* Kuwait, ISO 3166-1 country code** .kw, the country code top level domain for Kuwait* Kilowatt* Self-ionization of water Kw* Cornish language's ISO 639 code* Kitchener–Waterloo, Ontario, Canada...

 vertical Francis turbine

Francis turbine

The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, Massachusetts. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts....

 generator sets and a 700 kW auxiliary generator, the scheme has a total capacity of 30,700 kW and an average annual output of 118 GWh.

External links

• Trust Power - Patea power station