> where there is a surplus of energy due to a large aluminum smelter served by a dedicated hydroelectric plant.
This smelter is also about to shut down in August 2021. So now there's going to be a huge surplus of electricity way down south (the smelter uses ~13% of the country's total electricity!), with the big city way up north.
This is great to hear, that extra power (if the South<->North New Zealand HVDC Interconnect has the capacity [1]) will help push out New Zealand's last coal plant on the north island and possibly some of the gas generation [2].
We'd have to build a lot (billions) of new distribution infrastructure to get the Manapouri power to Auckland.
There are a lot of ideas circulating about what to do with the Tiwai plant, including setting up a Tesla factory (it has a deep water port handy). There just happens to be a source of the purest silicon sand in the world nearby, so one intriguing option is to set up solar panel production, which given the hydro power supply would have very high sustainability credentials.
This smelter is also about to shut down in August 2021. So now there's going to be a huge surplus of electricity way down south (the smelter uses ~13% of the country's total electricity!), with the big city way up north.