Benmore dam and the Cook Strait cable
- When
- 1965
- Where
- Waitaki Valley · Waitaki
- Reach
- Several regions
The largest earth dam in the country was built to feed a high-voltage link under Cook Strait, sending South Island hydro power north.
Most of the country’s hydro potential is in the South Island and most of its people are in the North, a mismatch that shaped electricity policy for decades. Benmore, on the Waitaki, was built as the anchor of the solution: a direct-current link that runs down the South Island, under Cook Strait and into the North Island grid. It made the two islands a single electricity system, and it also committed the Waitaki valley to a chain of dams and canals that permanently changed the river.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
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