Alinta has issued an initial notice to proceed with an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the second unit. The second cogeneration plant will be adjacent to Alinta’s first cogeneration unit and will be a replica of that unit.
Mitsubishi Downer is currently building the first unit at Pinjarra and has been awarded the contract to build the second unit.
Construction of the second unit is scheduled to start in January 2005, with electricity produced for sale by October 2006.
With about 70% of the capacity of the second unit already pre-sold to customers, Alinta was rapidly becoming a major provider of electricity in Western Australia, according to chief executive Bob Browning.
“Taking into account the two cogeneration plants and the Alinta Wind Farm – also currently under construction – within two years Alinta will be adding up to 370MW of electricity into the south-west grid,” Browning said.
“This represents much-needed private sector investment in independent generation capacity and means that scarce government resources can be allocated elsewhere. Continued reform in the West Australian electricity market will allow us to continue to expand our capability to deliver cleaner and cheaper power to consumers.”
Construction of the second unit is expected to cost approximately $165 million, of which about 70% is anticipated to be funded through a project finance facility with the balance from Alinta’s internal cash reserves.
As with the first unit, Alinta will own the second unit and take all electricity production for sale to third parties. Alcoa will operate the unit and take all steam produced by the facility for use in its refinery.
Cogeneration was more than 80% energy efficient, compared with 25-50% for other power plants operating in Western Australia, Alinta claimed. This meant a year’s electricity from the cogeneration unit would produce 450,000 tonnes less greenhouse gas emissions than a similar-sized coal-fired plant.
Alinta’s first Pinjarra cogeneration unit is currently under construction and scheduled to be producing electricity by mid 2005.
Alinta has begun pre-selling electricity for a third cogeneration unit. A decision on the location of the third unit has not been finalised.
