Lake Tekapo Operating Level Change
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GENESIS ENERGY LIMITED LAKE TEKAPO OPERATING LEVEL CHANGE Resource Consent Application and Assessment of Environmental Effects February 2018 APPLICATION FOR A CHANGE OF CONSENT CONDITIONS UNDER SECTION 127 OF THE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACT 1991 To: Canterbury Regional Council 1. GENESIS ENERGY LIMITED (“Genesis”) applies for changes to the conditions of Resource Consent CRC905301.4 to authorise a temporary modified operating regime for Lake Tekapo water levels. 2. The activity to which the application relates is as follows: Genesis holds the necessary authorisations from Environment Canterbury for its operation of the Tekapo Power Scheme. The resource consents for the scheme were granted in 1991 and expire in 2025. Genesis is seeking a change the conditions of Resource Consent CRC905301.4 to authorise an increased maximum lake level, to provide the ability to store additional water due to unforeseen plant outages. Specifically, Genesis is seeking to change: a) The Maximum Control lake level required by condition 6 of Resource Consent CRC905301.4 for February (709.7 metres above sea level [masl]), March (710.0 masl) and April (710.3 masl) 2018 to match the May (710.6 masl) Maximum Control lake level; and b) The spill flow operating regime required by condition 8 of Resource Consent CRC905301.4 for the period February 2018 to April 2018 inclusive. Condition 6 requires that Resource Consent CRC905301.4 is exercised such that the Maximum Control Level set out in Clause 1.1 of the “Tekapo Power Scheme, Appendix A, Extracts of Waitaki Operating Rules (9 November 1990) as modified by an order pursuant to section 122 of the Electricity Industry Act 2010” is maintained. Condition 8 of Resource Consent CRC905301.4 requires that Lake Tekapo spill flows be managed in accordance with the provisions contained in the “Tekapo Power Scheme, Appendix A, Extracts of Waitaki Operating Rules (9 November 1990) as modified by an order pursuant to section 122 of the Electricity Industry Act 2010”. Genesis Energy seeks the following change to the conditions of Resource Consent CRC905301.4 by adding the following condition 8A: Notwithstanding conditions 6 and 8, for the months of February 2018 to April 2018 inclusive: a) A Maximum Control Level of 710.6 masl applies; b) The total discharge from Lake Tekapo (machine discharge plus spillway) referred to in clauses 1.8 and 1.8A of Appendix A shall not exceed the values specified in the respective tables in clauses 1.8 and 1.8A; and c) If projections of flows and levels made by the Consent Holder have not occurred as predicted or other events beyond the direct control of the Consent Holder have occurred the total discharge from Lake Tekapo in clause b) can be amended in agreement with Meridian Energy and notification to Environment Canterbury flood managers, for flood management and dam safety purposes. Genesis Energy will provide Environment Canterbury a record of decisions made between Genesis and Meridian. 3. The site at which the proposed activity is to occur is as follows: Lake Tekapo 4. The full name and address of each owner or occupier (other than the applicant) of the site to which the application relates are as follows: Crown Land administered by LINZ. Genesis has an operating easement over this land which allows Genesis the rights to undertake its activities on this land. 5. The other activities that are part of the proposal to which the application relates are as follows: The proposal is described in full in in the Assessment of Environmental Effects. 6. The following additional resource consents are needed for the proposal to which this application relates and have been applied for: No other resource consents are required. 7. Attached is an assessment of the proposed activity’s effect on the environment that— (a) Includes the information required by clause 6 of Schedule 4 of the Resource Management Act 1991; and (b) Addresses the matters specified in clause 7 of Schedule 4 of the Resource Management Act 1991; and (c) Includes such detail as corresponds with the scale and significance of the effects that the activity may have on the environment. 8. Attached is an assessment of the proposed activity against the matters set out in Part 2 of the Resource Management Act 1991. 9. Attached is an assessment of the proposed activity against any relevant provisions of a document referred to in section 104(1)(b) of the Resource Management Act 1991, including the information required by clause 2(2) of Schedule 4 of that Act. 10. Attached is an assessment of any effects that the proposed activity may have on the environment in accordance with section 88 of, and the Fourth Schedule to, the Act. 11. No other information is required to be included in the application by the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan or the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan. Dated this 1st Day of February 2018 Signature: Elinor Watson Environmental Lead – South Island Genesis Energy Limited Address for service of applicant: Abbie Fowler Genesis Energy Limited Private Bag 3131 Hamilton 3240 Telephone: +64 7 984 1130 Cellphone: +64 21 385 991 Email: [email protected] Table of Contents Table of Contents 5 1 INTRODUCTION 6 1.1 Project Background and Rationale 6 2 EXISTING ENVIRONMENT 7 3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ACTIVITY AND CHANGES REQUESTED 8 4 EFFECTS OF THE CHANGES TO THE LAKE TEKAPO OPERATING REGIME 11 4.1 Positive Effects 11 4.2 Land Erosion and Inundation 11 4.3 Flooding Risk 12 4.4 Dam Safety 12 4.5 Cultural Effects 12 4.6 Aquatic Ecology / Other Environmental Matters 13 5 CONSULTATION 13 6 STATUTORY ASSESSMENT 14 6.1 Overview 14 6.2 Requirements of a Change of Condition Application 14 6.3 Notification 14 6.3.1 Public Notification (Section 95A) 14 6.3.2 Affected Persons and Limited Notification 15 6.4 Section 104 Assessment 16 6.4.1 Introduction 16 6.4.2 Actual and Potential Effects 17 6.4.3 Relevant Statutory Planning Documents 17 6.5 Part 2 Matters 22 6.6 Summary 23 7 CONCLUSION 23 List of Tables Table 1: Lake Tekapo Maximum Operating Control Level. 6 Table 2: Lake Tekapo Maximum Operating Control Level. 9 List of Figures Figure 1: Changes in Lake Tekapo Water Levels Since 2000. 9 Figure 2: Existing and Proposed Lake Tekapo Control Limits. 10 1 INTRODUCTION This Assessment of Environmental Effects (“AEE”) has been prepared in support of an application to change the conditions of Resource Consent CRC905301.4, under the Resource Management Act 1991 (“RMA”) by Genesis Energy Limited (trading as “Genesis”). 1.1 Project Background and Rationale Genesis has owned and operated the Tekapo Power Scheme since 1 June 2011. Lake Tekapo is the source of water for the entire Tekapo Power Scheme. The lake is dammed (and water levels controlled) by the Lake Tekapo Control Structure at the head of the Tekapo River. Tekapo A Power Station generates electricity from water diverted from Lake Tekapo, while Tekapo B Power Station is powered by water from the Tekapo Canal (which includes water that has passed through the Tekapo A Power Station) with outflows entering Lake Pukaki. This same water then passes through a further six power stations operated by Meridian Energy within the Waitaki Catchment. In November 2017, Genesis confirmed that the Tekapo B Generator 3 suffered a fault, with the unit now not expected to return to service at full capacity until mid to late April. This outage means that only approximately half of the water which would normally be used to generate electricity at the Tekapo B Power Station and downstream stations operated by Meridian Energy can be channelled through the Tekapo Canal until such time as the generator can be returned to service. The range of water storage capacity in Lake Tekapo is able to be utilised within the currently consented maximum control (“MaxCL”) and minimum control (“MinCL”) levels applicable to the lake. The MaxCL differs for different months of the year, as set out in Table 1. Month MaxCL February 709.70 masl1 March 710.00 masl April 710.30 masl May 710.60 masl June 710.90 masl July 710.90 masl August 710.30 masl September 709.70 masl October – January 709.70 masl Table 1: Lake Tekapo Maximum Operating Control Level. Genesis estimates that only half the normal volume of water is being passed through the Tekapo Canal due to the major unplanned Tekapo B outage, with consequential effects on generation at both the Tekapo B Power Station and downstream Meridian Energy power stations. The outage is also 1 “masl” means “metres above sea level”. influencing the storage in Lake Pukaki, New Zealand’s largest hydro-generation storage lake because of lower than average inflows from the Tekapo Canal. Because only half the volume of water is being passed through the Tekapo Canal, the level in Lake Tekapo is rising toward (and is likely to exceed) the MaxCL for the February 2018 to April 2018 (inclusive) period, with a consequent requirement to spill water from Lake Tekapo in order to maintain the consented lake levels. With current low inflow rates to the lake, this spill would be entirely due to the Generator 3 outage meaning that water would not be used for electricity generation as it would otherwise be if the outage had not occurred. Genesis anticipates the low inflow rates will continue for the foreseeable future, but that lake levels will continue to rise while the generation outage continues. Spilling water from Lake Tekapo will result in significant reductions in renewable electricity generation output from the Tekapo Power Scheme (in addition to that caused by the present outage), and three downstream hydro-electricity stations operated by Meridian Energy, and will also reduce the amount of water that could be stored in Lake Pukaki for use over the winter period.