Following the company's windfall in the breakup of United Energy's assets, details are about to be provided on the $100 million-plus diversification into the electricity market with plans for a 120 megawatt co-generation plant to be built at Alcoa's Pinjarra alumina refinery in Western Australia's south-west.
The deal will have serious implications for Western Power's procurement process as AlintaGas has already secured commitments for more than 100 MW of electricity from industrial consumers.
The plant will provide electricity into the South-West Interconnected System and is intended to be the first of up to 10 co-generation power units at Alcoa's alumina refineries.
Alcoa will use all of the steam output from the plants while Alinta will sell electricity into the retail market in direct competition with government-owned electricity utility, Western Power.
As an added bonus with Alinta's United Energy deal the company will take hold of a 66% stake in the fibre broadband carrier UeComm.
The book value of the company was estimated at around $150 million late last year and the predicted sale of the stock would hand Alinta some bonus revenue to kick-start the third quarter.
