Weddell Power Station is a 129 MW

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 ...

, located at Wickham, south-east of the Territory capital Darwin. 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 ...

, it is the second largest power station in the Territory and supplies the Darwin-Katherine Interconnected System.

History

Construction began in 2007 and the station was commissioned by the

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 ...

in 2008, initially with two General Electric LM6000PD gas turbines, brought online in 2008 and 2009 respectively, providing an

installed capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station,

of 86 MW. At the time of commissioning, these generators were the largest single units in the Darwin-Katherine power network, with each delivering approximately 10% of the total capacity. The facility is connected to the privately operated Wickham Point Pipeline, completed in July 2009. This allows the generators to be fed by both offshore projects via the

Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas Plant Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

, or through the existing pipeline linking Darwin with the

Amadeus Basin The Amadeus Basin is a large (~170,000 km2) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central Australia, lying mostly within the southern Northern Territory, but extending into the state of Western Australia. Origins The Amadeus Basin is named ...

gas fields. A third

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 ...

unit was planned to be commissioned in 2011, however it was not until 2014 that it was installed and became operational, boosting the power station's capacity to 129 MW. The total cost of construction of all three units was $126.6 million. As part of this upgrade, the power station's control systems were upgraded and integrated with the systems at

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 ...

, allowing the facility to be operated remotely.

References

{{Energy in the Northern Territory Natural gas-fired power stations in the Northern Territory Buildings and structures in Darwin, Northern Territory

History

See also

References