Horizon to front $166m Woodside grid connection cost

A plan to deliver transmission infrastructure connecting Woodside’s Pluto LNG plant and Maitland solar farm to the state’s North West Interconnected System will cost $166.3 million.

An Infrastructure WA report into the business case for the Maitland and Burrup infrastructure project, prepared by Horizon Power, has unveiled the cost – to be initially borne by the utility and paid back by Woodside and other potential users of the network over 25 years.

The rate of return will be less than $7 million per annum, a rate consistent with the utility’s policy for its Pilbara network.

The connections are designed to be shared under a broader shared-use vision for the region but will initially connect to the Woodside projects.

With the spend, a132-kilovolt transmission infrastructure extension will be built into the Maitland strategic industrial area connecting to the solar farm at Maitland, which is being built to supply energy to Pluto and other customers on the Burrup Peninsula.

The project will cover 1,100 hectares, and include one million solar panels with supporting infrastructure.

A second extension will connect the NWIS to the Pluto LNG plant, within the Burrup strategic industrial area, and a third, smaller line will connect Pluto to the grid while the major works are being delivered.

The project details were revealed in an IWA assessment of the plan, prepared in November but made public this week, which was broadly supportive of Horizon’s intentions in the area.

“As part of its decarbinisation strategy Woodside has been working with Horizon to explore connection of the Pluto LNG plant and proposed Maitland solar farm to the NWIS, enabling a portion of the LNG plant’s electricity needs to be met by renewable energy,” the report said.

While the infrastructure extension is largely focused on connecting Woodside’s projects to the grid, IWA said appropriate planning had been done to prepare for a future expansion of the infrastructure to other projects in the region.

IWA said the plan strongly aligned with the state’s net zero by 2050 commitment and had potential to be a first step in supporting a hydrogen industry.

It was also complementary of the level of consideration given by the utility to cultural heritage factors but urged that public consultation with Aboriginal communities continued throughout planning and delivery of the infrastructure.

“Preservation and protection of the local environment and significant Aboriginal cultural heritage sites and artefacts is critical in the planning and operation of existing and new infrastructure,” IWA said.

“Opportunities for decarbonisng activity through the provision of large-scale renewable energy generation on the Burrup itself are therefore limited.

“Common user transmission infrastructure is required to connect renewable generation into the NWIS and the current Burrup SIA, in order to support industry to decarbonise.”

A Pilbara Industry Roundtable including many of the region’s major industrial players reached an agreement in support of common-use electricity infrastructure mid-last year – to be largely subsidised by the private sector.

The agreement was part of a renewables cooperation vision for the region, which federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said was the hardest part of the country to decarbonise on a Cabinet visit to Perth in late August 2023.

The power-intensive Pilbara currently relies on just two per cent renewable energy.

Plans to expand Pluto were signed off by Energy Minister Reece Whitby in August last year.