By ashleykaren
The McConnell Dowell and John Holland JV has begun the excavation of an underground powerhouse cavern for Genex’s Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project in Far North Queensland.
The essential construction works to transform the former Kidston gold mine into a pumped storage hydroelectric power generation facility started in January 2022.
The joint venture, the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, has now achieved an essential milestone on the project, as the underground powerhouse cavern excavation has started 250m under the ground level.
The 250MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project is located 270km northwest of Townsville and is the flagship task of renewable energy and storage company Genex. It will comprise part of a renewable energy hub that merges hydropower with 320MW from solar and up to 258MW from wind.
The project involves the transformation of the site’s two current mine pits into upper and lower reservoirs, plus building significant underground infrastructure.
It comprises a large powerhouse cavern and waterway shafts and tunnels to allow the transfer of water between the reservoirs – to generate power when solar and wind generation is not available – and return water to the upper reservoir when renewable power is abundant.
The powerhouse will host two 125MW Andritz hydro reversible pump-turbine units, enabling the turbines to be utilized to both generate electricity and pump water for energy storage objectives.
Mott MacDonald and GHD have worked on providing engineering services for the project’s design.
The Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project is anticipated to be finished in 2024, with power due to flow to the national electricity market in early 2025. Kidston will be linked to the central grid via a new 200km long 275kV transmission line from Kidston to the East Coast of Queensland.
For investing in the project, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility has financed A$610M (£330M), the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has funded a A$47M (£25M) grant, and Genex allocated new shares, raising A$115M (£62M).
It is worth mentioning that the Kidston pumped hydro power station is the first to be constructed in Australia in nearly 40 years.
