Plans to reopen Port Augusta power station abandoned after BHP wouldn’t come to the party

THE demolition of the Northern power station in Port Augusta appears inevitable after the man behind a plan to fire it up again conceded his vision was dead and buried.

The Northern power station in Port Augusta looks set to be demolished after plans to recommission it were abandoned. Picture: Dean Martin.

THE demolition of the Northern power station in Port Augusta appears inevitable after the man behind a plan to fire it up again conceded his vision was dead and buried.

Brisbane-based energy investor Trevor St Baker told The Advertiser yesterday that he had advised site owner Alinta Energy and the State Government that without the support of BHP — South Australia’s largest energy consumer — he could not proceed with his plans.

The miner’s Olympic Dam asset president Jacqui McGill said this week that BHP had decided against entering into any long-term deal with Mr St Baker, opting instead for an arrangement with a local gas generator, understood to be Engie-owned Pelican Point.

“We accept now that BHP are still not motivated to keeping open a Northern recommissioning as an option to secure reliable and secure electricity supplies to Olympic Dam, and at an affordable forward contract price,” Mr St Baker said via email.

Energy investor Trevor St Baker. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

“Other SA business energy customers may have been interested in committing to smaller portions of the 240MW of baseload contract power supply necessary to get a Northern recommissioning option, and the additional 240MW further additional baseload capability as low-cost standby for the intermittent wind and solar.

“But without the state’s largest electricity consumer this was a tall ask, notwithstanding the frustration of smaller business energy customers at the doubling of their electricity bills as a result of the closure of Northern.”

Mr St Baker’s concession came little more than 24 hours after he told ABC radio that his plan was viable.

A spokesman for Alinta offshoot Flinders Power, which is responsible for the decommissioning of Northern, said the company was “absolutely committed” to its closure plans.

These plans will see the deconstruction of coal supply infrastructure progressively take place through 2017, leading up to the building’s demolition in early 2018.

It is understood that the point of no return for recommissioning Northern is late January 2017.

Stuart MP and Opposition energy spokesman Dan van Holst Pellekaan, who has urged the State Government to consider reopening Northern, said that it’s looking “less and less likely” that the power station will reopen.

Mining and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis has said that the State Government would not stand in Mr St Baker’s way — or that of any other private operator — provided no request for taxpayers’ money was made.

In November last year, Mr St Baker and Brian Flannery purchased the 1320MW coal-fired Vales Point power station from the NSW Government for $1 million.

[e-mail]