Friday 3/10/2008 Page: 4
THE second generator at the new Weddell power station is about to be turned on, ensuring the future of the Territory's power supply. Essential Services Minister Rob Knight said the second of three generators at Weddell would be in operation within eight weeks. The project is slightly behind schedule, but when up and running it will add an extra 80 megawatts of power to the capacity in the Darwin and Katherine region.The Territory Government expects a third generator to be operational by 2011. adding a total of 120 megawatts. "That's enough to power 100,000 homes in Darwin," Mr Knight said. The extra power will arrive just in time to ease concerns about the strain on Darwin's already stretched power system. A report on the Territory's power system released in December 2006 said without the second Weddell generator power supply would be "critically tight" in 2007-08 and short in 2008-09.
The Weddell station is being powered by gas piped from Alice Springs. But Mr Knight said gas from the Blacktip project in the Boneparte Basin would be powering the site by the start of next year. "It's scheduled to be here in January," he said. "We are still getting gas from Alice Springs and supplementing with diesel as has been publicly stated." Mr Knight said the new generators would also ensure there was adequate capacity for construction of the Inpex gas plant, which is expected to start in 2010. "We anticipate that Inpex will ask us for construction power which will be 10 to 15 megawatts," Mr Knight said.
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