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AUGUST 21, 2025
Karāpiro reunited By Mary Anne Gill
John Kennedy is in awe of the people who, more than 75 years ago, designed and built hydro dams on the Waikato River. At a Karāpiro community celebration last week dam operator Mercury Energy announced Ariki Road – which runs over the dam itself – would reopen permanently this week after closing off and on since August 2022. It marks the near completion of the $90 million upgrade to the Karāpiro hydro power station, a facility designed before World War II, built during the war, and commissioned in 1947. The third and final new power generator is now in place, boosting output enough to power an additional 63,000 homes. With the upgrade, Karāpiro now generates more electricity from the same
volume of water. “Efficiency is way up,” says Kennedy, who lives in Newstead and is Mercury’s Hydro Rehabilitation Programme Manager. This was his first project for Mercury, and he described it as a “once-in-a-generation” job. “It’ll be my grandchildren that take these machines out next time, or even my great grandchildren. It won’t be my children because this will run for 50 years,” he said. “It’s amazing. Some of the stuff that we took to scrap has worked tirelessly through this time and when you think everything back then was done on paper, no calculators, it was all done in a design office somewhere with slide rulers and drawings. It would take months to ship across the world with design changes. “What they delivered back in
Celebrating the road opening, from left Debbie Alexander, mother Hilma Gill and brother Richie Gill. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
those days is quite astounding really and the fact it has been reliably around for 75 years means it was well designed and wellengineered.” For every litre of water that goes through Karapiro, the plant now generates three percent more power. Kennedy’s favourite hydro station of Mercury’s nine on the Waikato River is Karāpiro. “This was the project that
brought me to Mercury and this is the one I’ve been invested in for the last three years.” Karāpiro-Arapuni site lead Kiel Adlam also has a lifetime invested in the hydro industry – as does his father Magnus, who last year celebrated 40 years with the company. Born in Hamilton, Adlam moved to Arapuni at age two when his father took a job there. He’s now Mercury’s Operation Readiness
Coordinator. “He’s still here, still telling me I’m doing it wrong,” said Adlam, who now lives in Cambridge. The best part of the Karāpiro project has been the learnings on the way. “We learned a lot of things on the first unit and now the third one. I’d like to think we’re in a much better place now.”
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Mercury NZ Hydro Rehab project manager John Kennedy left and site leader Kiel Adlam on top of Karāpiro Dam. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
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