[1] It acted as an emergency reserve power station, serving the load centre of Auckland to the south.

It was cooled through a long seawater pipe out into Bream Bay, which is now used to supply an aquaculture industry nearby.

Following the commissioning of the dual coal- and gas-fired Huntly power station in 1982, Marsden A became less used, and it was mothballed in the 1990s due to rising oil prices.

One of the generators was subsequently run as a synchronous condenser to provide reactive power support to Transpower's national grid in Northland, but were decommissioned in 2007 when they were superseded by solid-state power support devices within Transpower's network.

The facility was previously owned and operated by Mighty River Power.