Nexif Energy noise from power plant at Snapper Point disturbs St Kilda residents prompting complaints to councils and EPA

Desperate residents in Adelaide’s north say a new power plant is like trying to sleep through a jet plane landing and are heading to the caravan park just for a rest.

Sleep-deprived St Kilda residents forced to contend with noise from a new gas-fired power plant at Snapper Point say it’s like being woken up by a jet plane landing in their backyard.

One elderly couple fled to a caravan park for a few days rest in their motor home, while a neighbour started taking decibel readings and venting on Facebook.

Nexif Energy started commissioning the 154MW gas-turbine peaking power plant at its new Outer Harbor location early last month.

The five mobile aero-derivative gas turbines, leased from the state government, were relocated from the former Holden factory in Elizabeth where they were installed as an emergency backup after the statewide blackout of 2016.

Kev Collins and his wife Marilyn said they were being “driven mad” by the noise.

“What’s that awful noise?” Kevin and Marilyn Collins live at the northern end of St Kilda, where noise from the power plant is driving them mad. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“We’ve come away to get a decent couple of night’s sleep without these bloody machines rattling away,” Mr Collins said. “If this is not fixed, we cannot live (at St Kilda) anymore.

“The turbines run somewhat similar to a jet engine … at times they sync together and it’s extremely loud.”

Mrs Collins said she put mattresses up against the windows, wore earplugs and pulled the covers over her head, but couldn’t escape the noise.

“It’s the irregular pounding as well as the roar,” she said. “When they start at 4 or 5am, I wake up with my heart pounding with arrhythmia and I have a heart condition.”

The Nexif Energy power plant at Snapper Point, Outer Harbor. Picture supplied by Nexif

In Beach Road, Peri Coleman recorded noise at up to 80 decibels in her yard on Wednesday afternoon, but the worst of it has been in the early hours.

“The roar yanks you from sleep,” she said. “I seriously thought there was a jet plane landing in my garden. I bolted outside when it happened before 6am, in the dark, as I had no idea what the noise was.”

Noise pollution from the Nexif Energy power plant on Wednesday, June 1, recorded at St Kilda. Credit Peri Coleman

Others nearby share her concerns, but residents living further back from the coastline are not as disturbed.

After commissioning, the company will be required to take measurements, submit a noise report to the Environment Protection Authority and develop both a noise management and community engagement plans.

“The EPA licence requires noise measurements to be completed within three months of commissioning, and this is not yet complete,” a spokeswoman said.

At the Salisbury Council meeting on May 23, councillors expressed concern about noise levels, noting the council “was not part of any direct consultation in relation to the construction and operation of the new generators of the Nexif Energy Power station”.

The council wrote to the EPA to seek “noise monitoring, and if necessary, noise reduction measures”.

Port Adelaide Enfield council has also written to the EPA.

Nexif Energy has assured residents that “noise from the plant is well under accepted EPA guidelines for both day-time and night-time operations”.

“We will continue to engage independent noise testing experts to monitor the noise levels associated with the Nexif Energy Snapper Point Power Plant,” a spokesman said.