Katherine Power Station is a

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 ...

-fired

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

located at

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

near the town of

Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and Catherina, other variations are feminine Given name, names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria ...

. The power station is 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 ...

and supplies the Darwin-Katherine Interconnected System. The dual-fuel station can also independently provide power to Katherine in the event of disruptions across the regional grid, such as when gas supply was interrupted to

Channel Island Power Station Channel Island Power Station is the largest power station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is positioned on an island in the Middle Arm of Darwin Harbour, supplying electricity to the Darwin-Katherine Interconnected System. It is curre ...

near Darwin during 2014. The generators in Katherine were able to use a back up supply of

diesel fuel Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...

to minimise blackouts in the town. The power station was commissioned in 1987 with three generators providing a total capacity of 24.5 MW. A fourth unit was added in 2012, increasing this to 36.5 MW. The older units are planned to be decommissioned in 2026–27, however by this time it is expected that the

Eni Eni S.p.A. () is an Italian multinational energy company headquartered in Rome. Considered one of the seven "supermajor" oil companies in the world, it has operations in 69 countries with a market capitalization of US$54.08 billion, as of 11 Ap ...

group's 25 MW solar farm north of the town will be fully operational.

References

Natural gas-fired power stations in the Northern Territory Buildings and structures in the Northern Territory {{Australia-powerstation-stub