Port Hedland Power Station Expansion

Overview

Alinta Energy (subsidiary of Alinta DEWAP Pty Ltd) currently owns and operates the existing Port Hedland Power Station (PHPS) located within the Boodarie Strategic Industrial Area approximately 12 km south of the Port Hedland town centre and approximately 5 km west of South Hedland.

The Proposal utilises new technologies providing more energy efficient and reliable power to customers in the Port Hedland area.  This will include the installation of a 60 Megawatts (MW) natural gas fuelled reciprocating engine generating set with an option for a 40 MW battery energy storage system at the existing PHPS. 

While the new reciprocating engine will displace energy supplied by the existing (less-efficient) turbines resulting in reduced gas consumption and emissions at all power station loads. The PHPS has the capacity to generate up to 996,412tC0_2-e per annum under worst case extreme high (electricity demand) load scenario (24hours/7 days).

The PHPS currently operates under Environmental Protection Act 1986 Licence L7336/1998/10 for the following Prescribed Premises Category 52: Electric power generation.  The Proposal (upgrade and expansion) is proposed to be entirely contained within an existing development envelope and prescribed premise boundary

Why your views matter

At this initial stage of the EIA process, comment is simply sought on whether or not the EPA should assess a proposal and, if so, what level of assessment is considered appropriate.

What happens next

Following the seven day public comment period and consideration of any comments received, the EPA will decide whether or not this proposal requires environmental impact assessment and, if so, what level of assessment will be applied.

The EPA's decisions on level of assessment are released each Monday on the EPA's website.