New cleaner power generation for Wadeye

04 May 2011

Power and Water Corporation General Manager Remote Operations Darryl Day said that the Corporation was embarking on a program to extend the use of renewable energy and convert a number of remote power stations to gas to meet our objective to have more sustainable and efficient remote power generation in line with the Northern Territory Government’s Territory 2030 Strategic Plan.

“The location of the Blacktip gas pipeline and Wadeye provided an excellent solution to giving the Territory Growth Town a more efficient power station that is able to support a growing community," Mr Day said.

“By connecting to the gas supply from the Bonaparte Gulf, Wadeye becomes our first Top End remote community to have power generation from gas.

“With electricity consumption expected to increase and our desire to provide a more reliable and quieter power generation, this was a perfect solution and importantly reduces diesel fuel consumption by approximately 2 million litres of diesel per annum."

Power and Water is identifying a number of remote locations that can either be connected to existing gas supplies or inter-connecting communities within reasonable proximity by high voltage transmission powerlines.

Construction of the new 5MW natural gas-fired power station is expected to start in the 2011 dry season adjacent to the Bonaparte Gas Pipeline.

The existing diesel-fired power station within the township of Wadeye is more than 30 years old and will be decommissioned and removed.

Power and Water generates more than 90 per cent of the Territory’s electricity from natural gas. In 2009-10 a new supply from the offshore Blacktip field came online via the new 286km Bonaparte Gas Pipeline.

Power and Water is assessing further opportunities to replace diesel fuel electricity generation with liquefied petroleum and natural gas as well as renewable solar and wind power technologies across a number of Growth Towns and remote communities.

Over the past four years, lower efficiency diesel-fired power stations at Wallace Rockhole, Yuelamu, Rittarangu and Jilkminggan communities were decommissioned after the interconnect powerlines were built to higher efficiency power stations.