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Overcoming NT electricity grid ‘challenges’ to define stage 2 of landmark power project

What stage two of a landmark power project in the NT would look like depends on how the private company leading the charge overcomes “challenges” of dispatching power into the electricity grid, according to Rimfire Energy chief executive Michael Allen.

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WHAT the second stage of a landmark power project in the NT would look like depends on how the private company leading the charge overcomes “challenges” of dispatching power into the electricity grid, according to Rimfire Energy chief executive Michael Allen.

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Rimfire Energy boss Michael Allen. SUPPLIED
Rimfire Energy boss Michael Allen. SUPPLIED

He said a second phase of a landmark new privately owned and operated gas-fired power plant and solar project in the Top End would happen but its configuration was “not set in stone” yet.

It comes after the Federal Government announced Melbourne-based Merricks Capital Ltd had been approved for a $37m Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan to build a new 12-megawatt gas-fired power plant at Hudson Creek and a 10-megawatt solar farm with battery storage at Batchelor.

Those plants will sell its electricity to NT’s largest private energy retailer Rimfire Energy.

Mr Allen, who started Rimfire eight years ago and has been working on getting these power projects off the ground for a few years, said the objective was to bring down the power bills of Territorians and NT businesses.

Cheaper power prices, Mr Allen said, would make the NT a more attractive place to do business and ultimately grow the private sector.

He said it was “hard to say” by how much power prices would go down once the two power plants were up and running, though in the time Rimfire has been operating their business customers have seen a $10m to $15m overall reduction in the size of their electricity bills.

The gas power plant is expected to be online by May 2021, while the solar farm will be feeding electricity into the grid by December this year.

Original URL: https://www.ntnews.com.au/business/overcoming-nt-electricity-grid-challenges-to-define-stage-2-of-landmark-power-project/news-story/8f61a641d9ac94f1a69145b0359dd8cd