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South Australia will bring temporary back-up power generators online to prevent blackouts this summer, before they are merged into a permanent Government-owned power station.
In an announcement today, the SA Government said the hybrid turbines would initially be installed at two locations, the Adelaide desalination plant site in Lonsdale and the General Motors Holden site in Elizabeth.
They will operate on diesel fuel over the next two summers before being relocated to a new site to become a power plant and be switched to gas, the Government said.
Fast facts:
- Nine new generators across two Adelaide sites by summer
- A permanent location will be chosen at a later stage
- Initially diesel with later conversion to gas
- Capable of providing up to 276 MW quickly
- SA Government will own them
- They are emergency back-up to help avert blackouts
- Cost not confirmed, but less than $360 million
The Government has bought nine new General Electric aero-derivative turbines through US company APR Energy.
In his $550 million energy plan announced in March, Premier Jay Weatherill had proposed the installation of temporary generators before a new Government-owned generator could be built.
Together, the turbines will be capable of quickly producing up to 276 MW of energy, more than the 250 MW originally outlined in the government's plan.
The state-owned generators will be tested monthly and only used when required to prevent an electricity supply shortfall.
The power plant will have a lifespan of 25 years.
"Why have we had to do this? We have a broken national electricity market," Mr Weatherill said.
He said there was not a "coherent" national energy policy which took into account climate change and as a result investment had been "paralysed", leaving the southern states vulnerable to power shortfalls over summer.
"The point of the energy plan and the point of this announcement today is to make sure we can ride through not only the next two summers but also take charge of our energy future to make sure we have secure, reliable and affordable and clean power for the future," he said.
Mr Weatherill said since the plan was launched AGL had announced they would construct the first new generator in SA since the privatisation of the electricity trust, there would be an upgrade to ENGIE'S Pelican Point plant and Tesla promised to build the world's largest lithium ion battery at Jamestown.
APR Energy said the back-up generation would be "deployed in just weeks".
"Ensuring that the people of South Australia have this critically needed power quickly will play an important role in mitigating the risk of blackouts and the need for load shedding during the peak summer months," company chairman John Compion said.
Generators to meet December deadline
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the new turbines would not compete in the wholesale energy market and would only produce power when requested to do so by the Australian Energy Market Operator to prevent load-shedding blackouts.
Those blackouts, which occur when the total demand for electricity exceeds supply, occurred three times last summer.
The Government has not revealed the cost of the new generators, but said it would be less than the $360 million allocated in its energy plan.
Under the contract, APR Energy would operate the generators on behalf of the Government for the next two summers.
The permanent solution may not be locked in, however.
The Premier confirmed the Government had an option in the contract allowing it to opt in or out after the initial two-year period.
The generators are expected to be installed at Lonsdale and Elizabeth by the Government's December 1 deadline.
Topics: states-and-territories, government-and-politics, electricity-energy-and-utilities, adelaide-5000, sa
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