available to upgrade and develop Monowai. In June 1996 they identified 10 possible options for consideration. SEPS decided to proceed with a scheme that involved diverting water from the river upstream of the existing headpond through a short canal and longer pipeline to the powerhouse. This would increase the head and thus water pressure so allowing the station for the same inflow to produce up to 50% more electricity per annum. In July 1997 a resource consent was applied for and subsequently granted. Selling of Monowai In 1993 upon the passing of the Southland Electricity Act Monowai together with all other assets of SEPS was vested in The Power Company Limited (TPCL). The passing into law in August 1998 of the Electricity Industry Reform Act, which required the separation of ownership of generation and retailing from lines businesses. As part of its submissions when the new law was being proposed TPCL had requested that the limit on generation that line companies be allowed to own be increased from 3 MW to 10 MW. The government did increase the limit but only to 5 MW, which was lower than Monowai's capacity. As a result, TPCL had no choice but to reluctantly sell the power station, which they did in March 1999 to Trustpower for $3.75 million. Trustpower decided only to upgrade the turbines and generators and the resource consent to construct a canal and new pipeline was allowed to lapse. Trustpower subsequently sold Monowai for a profit of $2.7 million to Pioneer Generation (subsequently renamed Pioneer Energy) in December 2002. Refurbishment At the time they purchased the power station Pioneer knew that while it had been well maintained the equipment was old and becoming unreliable, with a considerable number of unplanned outages. With no remote control facility operating staff had to attend the power station seven days a week, which by this time was only during daylight hours. If a fault occurred outside of hours of attendance it was necessary that for an operator to be called out to restore generation. This could take some time as the operating staff lived in the township of Manapouri, which is approximately 40 minutes drive from the station. if the problem was more serious than an operator could resolve then Pioneer was reliant on maintenance contractors who were generally based in Invercargill, who took a minimum of two hours to reach the site. Various