Whyalla steelworks owner GFG Alliance boss Sanjeev Gupta commits to large-scale energy projects in SA

THE British billionaire owner of the Whyalla steelworks has committed to a range of large-scale renewable energy projects in SA, including a 100MWh lithium-ion battery for Port Augusta.

THE British billionaire owner of the Whyalla steelworks has committed to a range of large-scale renewable energy projects in South Australia, including a 100MWh lithium-ion battery that will be built in Port Augusta.

GFG Alliance boss and new ZEN Energy chairman Sanjeev Gupta said “a strategic plan for establishing 1GW of additional dispatchable renewable generation assets to support long-term electricity supply contracts with SA’s large industrial users” had been approved.

Mr Gupta unveiled the plan — understood to be worth up to $700 million — this afternoon following ZEN’s first board meeting since GFG took a controlling stake last month.

At the centre of the plan is a 100MW/100MWh lithium-ion battery, which outgoing ZEN chairman Ross Garnaut said would cost in excess of $100 million and be operational in the first quarter of 2019. The battery will be located nearby the now closed Northern power station in Port Augusta and be plugged into the 275kV Davenport connection.

PROJECTS: Professor Ross Garnaut. Picture: David Geraghty.

Mr Garnaut said the battery was “very similar in size” to the one being built by Elon Musk and his Tesla company at Jamestown as part of the State Government’s energy plan.

“We think that ours (battery) will be particularly well-suited to stabilising the grid and we’ll also be selling (power) into the wholesale market, at the same time as stabilising our own solar supply,” Professor Garnaut said.

The other projects endorsed by ZEN’s board and expected to be up and running by early 2019 are 200MW of solar PV in Whyalla — 80MW within Whyalla Council’s industrial area and the remainder on adjacent land owned by GFG — and 100MW of “demand response” at the Whyalla steelworks and other industrial sites in SA.

The development of 120MW/600MWh of pumped hydro at a disused iron ore mine pit in the Middleback Ranges is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. An additional 480MW of solar capacity will be installed “in due course” to support the expansion of industrial capacity in Whyalla and industrial loads elsewhere in SA.

ZEN is in ongoing discussions with the Commonwealth’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency regarding subsidies for the projects.

ENERGY: Executive chairman of GFG Alliance, Sanjeev Gupta. Picture: Bianca De Marchi.

“These first steps in SA will improve reliability and greatly reduce costs of electricity in our own steelworks at Whyalla, and provide competitive sources of power for other industrial and commercial users,” Mr Gupta said.

“This will be followed by early steps to lower (GFG’s) Liberty OneSteel’s electricity costs in NSW and Victoria, and to provide power at lower cost to other industrial enterprises in these states and Queensland.

“I have been asked whether today’s decision is contingent on how current uncertainty in national electricity policy is resolved. Naturally we are watching developments in policy closely.

“In the meantime, we are proceeding with the first 520MW of capacity based on positive interactions with relevant stakeholders.”

The ZEN board meeting, held in Adelaide, was the first since Mr Gupta’s GFG purchased a 50.1 per cent share in the company in September.

Prof Garnaut will remain on the ZEN board as president of the company.

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