The Pelican Point Power Station is located at
Pelican Point, 20 km from the centre of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
on the
Lefevre Peninsula
The Lefevre Peninsula is a peninsula located in the Australian state of South Australia located about northwest of the Adelaide city centre. It is a narrow sand spit of about running north from its connection to the mainland.
The name given t ...
. It is operated by
Engie
Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...
(previously known as GDF Suez Australian Energy), which owns 72 per cent of the power station.
Mitsui
is one of the largest '' keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world.
The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industri ...
owns the remaining 28 per cent. It burns
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 ...
in a
combined cycle
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 ...
power station, comprising two 160 MW gas turbines and one 165 MW steam turbine, to generate up to 485 MW of
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
.
Construction began in 1999. The plant has two GT13E2 gas turbines manufactured by ABB (now Alstom). The plant, including steam turbine and
heat recovery steam generator
A heat recovery steam generator (''HRSG'') is an energy recovery heat exchanger that recovers heat from a hot gas stream, such as a combustion turbine or other waste gas stream. It produces steam that can be used in a process (cogeneration) or u ...
(HRSG), was manufactured and constructed by ABB.
Fuel is supplied via either the
SEAGas pipeline, which runs from the
Iona Gas Plant in Victoria to the Pelican Point power station, or the
Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System
The Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System is a natural gas pipeline delivering gas from the Cooper Basin gas wells near Moomba to Adelaide, with spur pipelines to Angaston and Whyalla. It can also receive gas from Southeastern Queensland through the ...
(MAPS), which supplies gas from
Moomba
Moomba (also known as the Moomba Festival) is held annually in Melbourne, Australia. Run by the City of Melbourne, it is Australia's largest free community festival. The Melburnian tradition is celebrated over four days, incorporating the Labo ...
to Adelaide.
Environmental protests
In 1999, the proposed development of the Pelican Point Power Station led to widespread protests against its construction on environmental grounds, fearing
hot water
Water heating is a heat transfer process that uses an energy source to heat water above its initial temperature. Typical domestic uses of hot water include cooking, cleaning, bathing, and space heating. In industry, hot water and water heated t ...
and chemical waste products from the station could harm local wildlife, in particular the dolphin and pelican populations of the
Port River
The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...
. These protests included a unanimous resolution by the
City of Port Adelaide Enfield
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, located across inner north and north-western suburbs of Adelaide, is one of the largest metropolitan councils within South Australia. It was established on 26 March 1996 by the amalgamation of the City of Por ...
council to seek a legal injunction against its construction, and the formation of 'Community Action for Pelican Point' (later Community Action for Port and Peninsula), an organisation that organised protest marches both in the local area and at
Parliament House, Adelaide, and a long term picket line to block the access road to the construction site. The protests and picket line led to multiple arrests, including that of the Mayor of the
City of Port Adelaide Enfield
The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, located across inner north and north-western suburbs of Adelaide, is one of the largest metropolitan councils within South Australia. It was established on 26 March 1996 by the amalgamation of the City of Por ...
, Joanna McCluskey, for failure to comply with police requests to move. Notable participants in the protests included Ms McCluskey, local
Kaurna
The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurn ...
representatives, as well as state and federal
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
,
Greens,
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Australia ...
, and Independent MPs including
Nick Xenaphon.
Community engagement
Since 2002 International Power have allowed school and community groups to tour Pelican Point Power Station. The tours were originally designed and run by The Investigator Science and Technology Centre, and were taken over b
SciWorldwhen the Investigator closed in 2006. Since January 2009 the tours have been operated b
Mobile Science Education
Reduced operation
Since March 2013 the power station has generally operated at half capacity due to over-capacity in the South Australian region of the
National Electricity Market
The National Electricity Market (NEM) is an arrangement in Australia's electricity sector for the connection of the electricity transmission grids of the eastern and southern Australia states and territories to create a cross-state wholesale elec ...
. Grid generation capacity was reduced in early 2016 when the
Northern Power Station closed. Generation at Pelican Point was increased to full capacity at the request of the South Australian government for at least a week in July 2016, due to much of the state's wind generation being offline due to damaging high winds, and the
Heywood interconnector
The Heywood interconnector is a 275 kV AC overhead electricity transmission line with two circuits connecting the electricity grids in South Australia and Victoria, two states of Australia. Both are part of the National Electricity Market. The no ...
being unavailable due to works associated with a planned increase in its capacity. It returned to only operating one unit (half capacity) and the owner claimed that the
National Electricity Market
The National Electricity Market (NEM) is an arrangement in Australia's electricity sector for the connection of the electricity transmission grids of the eastern and southern Australia states and territories to create a cross-state wholesale elec ...
rules prohibited the second unit from responding to a request for electricity market responses on 8 February 2017. The result was that the extremely hot weather in Adelaide plus little wind to drive wind turbines led to the market operator requiring "load shedding" for 27 minutes during the evening electricity demand peak. The owner later clarified that it is not allowed to bid into the market if supply cannot be guaranteed, and it did not have a current gas supply contract for the second unit. It was able to respond promptly once directed to do so on 9 February during continuing high temperature weather.
Engie advised AEMO on 5 June 2017 that they were currently operating at half capacity (239 MW), but would make full capacity available to the market (479 MW) as of 1 July 2017.
See also
*
International Power
Engie Energy International, formerly International Power, is a multinational electricity generation company headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the French company Engie (formerly GDF Suez).
The company was form ...
*
List of power stations in South Australia
This is a list of active power stations in South Australia, Australia. Candidates for this list must already be commissioned and capable of generating 1 MW or more of electricity.
Coal fired
Since 2016, there has been no coal-fired power gener ...
References
External links
Pelican Point Power Station International Power
{{EnergySA
Natural gas-fired power stations in South Australia
Buildings and structures in Adelaide
Lefevre Peninsula
Economy of Adelaide