Townsville has a thirst for power Jun 12 Stephen Wisenthal
Townsville has grown into a global metal refining centre, producing copper, zinc and nickel at major refineries on the outskirts of the city. But community and industry leaders say it will not reach its full potential in base metal processing unless it can get a plentiful supply of cheap power from a coal-burning generator.
"There is a need for a base-load power station to meet the future needs," says Townsville Enterprise chairman Graham Jackson.
Townsville mayor Tony Mooney says a $500million project announced last year to develop gas-fired power for the city is "a nice start".
State-owned power group Enertrade is backing the expansion and conversion of an existing jet-fuel generator owned by Transfield Services.
"It's a big investment. It's going to generate economic activity in our city," the mayor says.
But more will be needed.
"There's not a major metals refinery in the world that's getting its electricity from anything but coal," Mooney says.
Transfield Services is studying the best way of getting more power to Townsville, says the company's general manager for power, David Jones.
The options include transmitting power from the south, building a power station at the mouth of a coal mine closer to Townsville, with shorter transmission distances, or shipping the coal to a plant at Townsville.
It can be difficult to gain approval for burning coal at Townsville because it is close to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Jones says.
The 220 megawatts of electricity from Transfield's existing plant will help, but will not be enoughto support a planned doubling of the 200,000 tonne a year capacity of the Sun Metals zinc refinery, says the company's chief executive, Shad Linley. The four-year-old refinery is the biggest user of base-load power in north Queensland, with demand of 106 megawatts.
"When we came here everything we needed was here except base-load power," Linley says.
"This town has the potential to be the biggest base metals centre in the world," he says.
The Townsville area, with a population of almost 150,000, is already home to two other major metal plants, BHP Billiton's Yabulu nickel refinery and MIM Holdings' copper refinery.
About 16 per cent of the electricity transmitted to Townsville is lost over the 800 kilometres from power stations to the south. Fees paid to state-owned power line company Powerlink Queensland add a further 25 per cent to the cost.
"You can have 50 more stations in south-east Queensland but it wouldn't help us
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