What replaces the closed Port Augusta coal stations?

The Northern Power Station (closed 2016) and Playford B (closed 2012) left a ~600 MW gap and stranded a generation of industrial workers. Port Augusta Growth Precinct rebuilds the energy industrial base — 1.5 GW solar plus battery storage plus a synchronous condenser bank plus long-duration storage: dispatchable power and grid stability — on the same workforce that ran the coal stations.

Why a grid-stability anchor here?

When the coal stations closed, South Australia lost the spinning machines that steady a grid — and the 2016 statewide blackout exposed the gap. Port Augusta sits on the strongest grid node in the region, with transmission to Adelaide already built, so it's where synchronous condensers, batteries and long-duration storage do the most good. Port Augusta also builds Australia's first sovereign synfuel plant nearby at Port Bonython, on the existing fuel-export wharf; Tennant Creek scales synfuel later on the cheapest power inland.

Why build the first synfuel plant at Port Augusta and not Tennant Creek?

Turning sunshine into diesel and jet fuel is precommercial and expensive, so the first plant should sit where the non-power risks are lowest. Port Bonython, on the Upper Spencer Gulf next to Port Augusta, already has a deep-water fuel-export terminal, coastal water for making hydrogen and capturing carbon, transmission, and a federally-backed hydrogen hub. Prove it there; scale it at Tennant Creek later, where the power is cheapest on the continent.

What are synchronous condensers and why include them?

Synchronous condensers provide grid inertia — the rotational stability traditional coal and gas plants provided as a byproduct. As coal exits the grid, inertia falls and the grid becomes more vulnerable to frequency events. Port Augusta's synchronous condensers replace the inertia the closed coal plants used to provide, allowing more renewables onto the SA grid safely.

Growing Australia

Growing Australia is a practical platform for a stronger, more resilient Australia: 53 investments across six national priorities, designed to strengthen productive capacity, resilience and long-term living standards.

The complete long-term register has a central concept-stage estimate of $201.4 billion and is designed to be delivered gradually. A focused first-stage group is costed at about $10 billion, with the ledger, assumptions and evidence published openly.

Costing model
Citations and sources
Powering Australia
Making It Here
Cyber Australia
Feeding Australia
Our Neighbourhood
Building Australia