Alinta eyes expansion of Glenbrook power plant

By CHRIS DANIELS

The co-generation power station at the Glenbrook steel mill may be expanded by its new owner, Perth-based Alinta.

Chief executive Bob Browning told investors that the primary growth opportunity for the 112MW Glenbrook power station was the "potential to expand its generation capacity and supply NZ Steel with the electricity it currently purchases from the New Zealand electricity market".

At present, the mill gets half its electricity needs from the co-generation plant.

Alinta bought the power station as part of $1.9 billion worth of Asia Pacific assets acquired from US company Duke Energy this week.

Browning said there were no plans to on-sell any of the Duke assets.

Alinta describes itself as an operator, manager and part owner of regulated energy assets worth around A$4 billion ($4.5 billion).

These assets include its natural gas distribution network in Western Australia, an electricity network in the southeast of Melbourne and a gas network in the city's east.

With its head office in Perth, Alinta operates and manages more than 20,000km of gas pipes and 12,000km of electricity lines.

It grew out of a state Government owned power company and was privatised in 1998. One of its part-owners was the US energy giant Aquila (formerly Utilicorp) which used to own 70 per cent of New Zealand lines company UnitedNetworks, which it sold in 2002 to Vector.

The Glenbrook plant produces electricity using the byproduct gases from the steel mill's iron-making process.