The Poihipi Power Station is a geothermal power station owned and operated by Contact Energy. It is located on Poihipi Road near Taupo in New Zealand.

The plant produces around 200 GWh pa, utilising geothermal steam from the Wairakei field, and is operated as part of the Wairakei geothermal system.

Poihipi Power Station
Location	Waikato
Owner	Contact Energy
Status	Operational
Fuel	Geothermal
Maximum capacity	55 MW
Commissioned	1996

The Kawerau Geothermal Power Plant is a 100-megawatt geothermal power plant located just outside the town of Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. The power station is situated within the Kawerau geothermal field, which is part of the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Completed in July 2008 by Mighty River Power at a cost NZ$300 million, the plant's capacity proved greater than expected.^[1] The station is the largest single generator geothermal plant in New Zealand.

The Kawerau Geothermal Power Plant boosted the country's geothermal capacity by 25 percent and significantly increased local generation capacity in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. The plant meets approximately one third of residential and industrial demand in the region and provides cost certainty to local industry including Norske Skog Tasman.

The Kawerau Geothermal Power Plant uses a single Fuji turbine and steam from geothermal bores. The two phase fluid is flashed/separated twice to produce high and low pressure steam to feed the turbine.

The Kawerau Geothermal Power Plant field also supplies process steam to the Kawerau pulp and paper mill. This is used for process and power generation. Two small binary power plants use waste hot geothermal water for power generation.

A binary plant is also located west of the main power station. This station uses two phase fluid from one production well, KA24.

Kawerau Power Station
Location	Bay of Plenty
Owner	Mighty River Power
Status	operating
Fuel	geothermal
Maximum capacity	100 MW
Commissioned	2008

The Centennial Drive Binary Geothermal Power Plant is a 23 MW binary cycle geothermal power station situated near Taupo, New Zealand. The power station is operated by Contact Energy.

In July 2008, Contact Energy announced that the contract for supply and construction of the binary cycle equipment was awarded to Ormat Technologies.

The Centennial Drive Binary Geothermal Power Plant is powered with steam and fluid from the Tauhara steamfield, and all used geothermal fluid is reinjected back into the edge of the steamfield.

The Tauhara One plant was opened in May 2010, three weeks ahead of schedule.

Centennial Drive Binary
Location	Centennial Drive, opposite Rakaunui Road, Taupo, New Zealand
Owner	Contact Energy
Status	operating
Fuel	Geothermal
Maximum capacity	23 MW
Commissioned	2010

The Ohaaki Power Station is a geothermal power plant owned and operated by Contact Energy. A distinctive feature of this power station is the 105 m high natural draft cooling tower, the only one of its kind in New Zealand.

Although initially constructed to generate 104 MW, decline in the steamfield has meant maximum net capacity is about 65 MW with an annual output of around 400 GWh pa.

There are currently three turbines in operation. One smaller turbine runs off high pressure steam which then backfeeds into the main intermediate pressure system that feeds the two main units. Condensers on the back end of the main turbines are fed cooled water from the cooling tower to condense the steam back into water. Additional condensate gained in this process is reinjected back into the ground.

The Ohaaki geothermal power plant is located adjacent to the Ohaaki Marae (Ngāti Tahu) on the banks of the Waikato River in New Zealand. Gradual sinking of the marae has been attributed to draw-off of geothermal fluids by the power station. The area of the marae is sinking approximately 170mm a year. In the 1960s, the marae was moved to its present location because the previous site was flooded when the dam for the Ohakuri Power Station was filled.

Ohaaki Power Station
Location	Waikato
Owner	Contact Energy
Status	Operational
Fuel	Geothermal
Maximum capacity	104 MW
Commissioned	1989

Nga Awa Purua is a geothermal power plant located near Taupo in New Zealand. The project was developed by Mighty River Power. Nga Awa Purua is New Zealand's second largest geothermal power station and the steam turbine is the largest geothermal turbine in the world.

The geothermal power plant is a joint venture between Mighty River Power and the Tauhara North No 2 Trust. The $430 million project first generated electricity on 18 January, and was officially opened by Prime Minister John Key on 15 May 2010.

The Rotokawa Power Station is situated close by.

Nga Awa Purua
Location	Waikato
Owner	Mighty River Power
Status	Operational
Fuel	Geothermal
Turbines	1
Maximum capacity	140 MW
Commissioned	2010

The Wairakei Power Station is a geothermal power station near the Wairakei Geothermal Field in New Zealand. Wairakei lies in the Taupo Volcanic Zone.

The geothermal power plant was built in 1958, the first of its type in the world, and it is now being operated by Contact Energy. A binary cycle power plant was constructed in 2005 to use lower-temperature steam that had already gone through the main plant. This increased the total capacity of the power station to 181MW. The Wairakei power station is due to be phased out from 2011, replaced by the Te Mihi geothermal power station. The Poihipi Power Station was built in 1996 at a nearby site in the same field.

The use of steam from the field has had a number of visible effects on the local environment. Visible geothermal activity has increased (due to changes in the water table / water pressure allowing more steam to be created underground, upsurging at places like Craters of the Moon), while there has also been some land subsidence and reduction in steam volumes from the field after some decades of use. So far, total electrical production has been sustained or increased, with the investment in additional power stations such as the binary plant of 2005 designed for lower-temperature generation. Some power stations in the field are now capped in their extraction capacities and a substantial part of the water / steam is being reinjected after use.

The hot geothermal fluid that is extracted is originally cold rainwater that had percolated downwards and been heated by hot rock; pumping back the warm water that emerges from the exhaust of the generator system thus reduces the heat drawn from the ground. Also, the Waikato river water is already too high in arsenic content to be safe to drink without special treatment, and so reinjection of the facility's water does not exacerbate this problem.

Wairakei Power Station
The Wairakei Power Station, with the main two blocks at the left rear. The binary plant is in front.
Location	New Zealand
Owner	Contact Energy
Fuel	Geothermal
Maximum capacity	181MW
Commissioned	1958
Decommissioned	2011 onwards (planned)