Channel Island Power Station is the largest power station in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

of Australia. It is positioned on an island in the Middle Arm of

Darwin Harbour Darwin Harbour is the body of water close to Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It opens to the north at a line from Charles Point in the west to Lee Point in the east into the Beagle Gulf and connects via the Clarence Strait wit ...

, supplying electricity to the Darwin-Katherine Interconnected System. It is currently owned and operated by

Territory Generation Territory Generation is a government owned corporation of the Northern Territory (Australia), established on 1 July 2014. It had previously been an operational business unit of Power and Water Corporation. Territory Generation owns and operates e ...

. Most of the island surrounding the facility is protected from development as the

Channel Island Conservation Reserve Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

History

Channel Island Power Station was built and commissioned in 1986 by the Power and Water Authority, a predecessor of

Power and Water Corporation Power and Water Corporation, trading as PowerWater, is a Government of the Northern Territory owned corporation in the Northern Territory of Australia. PowerWater is the Northern Territory's premier provider of electricity, water and sewerage s ...

, replacing the Stokes Hill Power Station. At the time of commissioning, Channel Island was the first

combined cycle power plant A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...

in Australia, and the first to feature distributive digital control systems with screen-based controls. In 2008, it was supplemented by the nearby

Weddell Power Station Weddell Power Station is a 129 MW natural gas-fired power station in the Northern Territory, located at Wickham, south-east of the Territory capital Darwin. Owned and operated by Territory Generation, it is the second largest power station in ...

which became operational that year, however Channel Island still provided 48% of the Territory's total power generation, with an installed capacity of 232 MW in 2010. At that time, plant in use at Channel Island included 5

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

generators capable of running on either

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

or diesel fuel in addition to a more modern 40MW

GE LM6000 The General Electric LM6000 is a turboshaft aeroderivative gas turbine engine. The LM6000 is derived from the CF6-80C2 aircraft turbofan. It has additions and modifications designed to make it more suitable for marine propulsion, industrial po ...

gas turbine generator installed by

Leighton Contractors CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an Australian construction contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries ...

. A steam turbine was also in place to generate electricity from

waste heat Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility ...

produced by units C4 and C5. Two new

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

Trent 60 gas turbines were commissioned to expand the capacity of the power station in 2011. These two turbines can each generate 58MW of electricity and collectively increased the generation capacity on the Darwin-Katherine power system by 25%. Between 2011-14, the power station's control systems were integrated with all three units at Weddell Power Station, allowing centralised control from Channel Island. Ownership of both facilities transferred to Territory Generation when it was separated from Power and Water in 2014. As of 2020, unit C3, an original 1986 General Electric Frame 6 type generator was undergoing decommissioning. This reduced the power station's capacity from 310 MW to 279 MW, however it still remains the main facility generating

base load The base load (also baseload) is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week. This demand can be met by unvarying power plants, dispatchable generation, or by a collection of smaller intermittent e ...

for the regional grid.

Renewable energy

In 2021 the

Northern Territory Government The Government of the Northern Territory of Australia, also referred to as the Northern Territory Government, is the Australian territorial democratic administrative authority of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory wa ...

awarded a tender for the construction of a 35 MVA

battery storage power station A battery storage power station is a type of energy storage power station that uses a group of batteries to store electrical energy. Battery storage is the fastest responding dispatchable source of power on electric grids, and it is used to stab ...

to be built at Channel Island. At a cost of $45 million, the Darwin-Katherine Battery Energy Storage System will replace the decommissioned gas-fired unit and support the expansion renewable energy across the region such as by supporting the connection of rooftop

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...

to the grid. Also in 2021, Territory Generation ordered a trailer-mounted GE TM2500 aeroderivative gas turbine for Channel Island. Rated at 22 MW, this unit is capable of running on renewable hydrogen and is compatible with the Battery Energy Storage System currently being installed. The remaining thermal units, C1 and 2, and C4 and 5 along with the waste heat turbine are expected to be decommissioned in 2026-27, with similar small hydrogen capable units the most likely replacement.

References

{{Energy in the Northern Territory Natural gas-fired power stations in the Northern Territory Buildings and structures in Darwin, Northern Territory Economy of Darwin, Northern Territory Proposed renewable energy power stations in Australia 1986 establishments in Australia