An upgrade costing $2.5 million-$3 million at the Roxburgh Dam will help improve its efficiency, Contact Energy head of hydro generation Boyd Brinsdon says.
The two hydro auxiliary generators that supplied power to the Roxburgh Dam were being upgraded to ensure the dam would be there for the long haul, Mr Brinsdon said.
The hydro generators have been in operation since the dam opened in 1956, 61 years ago.
The upgrade would "ensure the station’s resilience", he said.
"We don’t wait until things break, reliability is what we want to maintain."
He hoped the new generators would last another 60 years.
They were made by firms in the Czech Republic and Christchurch. Final production was completed by Farra Engineering in Dunedin.
Mr Brinsdon said the project had had "long lead times" and Contact Energy started ordering the parts about two years ago.
Work on replacing the first generator started about two weeks ago. Each generator would take three months to upgrade.
Since Contact Energy bought the plant in 2000, more than $100 million had been spent on refurbishing it.
"We see a very long future for [the] Clyde and Roxburgh [dams]," Mr Brinsdon said.
Coincidentally, the Roxburgh Dam opened in the the same year as the first Alexandra Blossom Festival.
