Granny Smith Project Stats:

• Aggreko has partnered with Gold Fields to continually innovate and evolve the mine’s power strategy at the Granny Smith site, from diesel only to a future-proof hybrid system
• 11 x Aggreko crew were on site for a total of 425 days during the solar plant and BESS install
• 44 local contractors used to support the build
• Once fully operational, the new hybrid system will reduce the mine’s fuel consumption by up to 13%
  • Displacing approximately 12,822 Metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the equivalent of 2,770 cars removed from the road
  • The energy generated from the solar farm would power approximately 1,350 houses

Diesel Power Station

Prior to utilising gas a power source, Gold Fields relied on diesel power for their operations at the Granny Smith Mine Site

• 17.9MW Diesel Power Generators

Granny Smith Mine

The Granny Smith Mine is an underground gold mining operation located 740km northeast of Perth, Western Australia. Operated by Gold Fields, the deposit was discovered in 1979 and in 1989 mining commenced on site with the first gold being poured the year after.

Currently, Wallaby is the operation’s active mine, with mining administration and maintenance located nearby. The annual production of the Wallaby mine is in-excess of 250,000 ounces per year.

Gas Power Station

In 2016, Aggreko worked with Gold Fields to design, install and operate a 22MW Gas Power Station at the Granny Smith Mine that would displace the diesel power generation on site.

The Gas Power Station used fuel drawn from the new gas extension, powered by new gas-fired Osprey engines. Ultimately, this meant Gold Fields could make significant cost savings while reducing their carbon footprint at the same time.

• 22MW of gas power, now extended to 27.3MW
• Utilising high pressure gas from the Eastern Goldfields gas pipeline
• Installing high pressure gas conditioning infrastructure and a heat recovery system
• This optimises power station efficiency and reduces gas pressure from the gas network, from 9 bar to x bar
• Contributes to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 85,845 tons over ten years

Solar Plant

As the mining industry continues to undergo a significant energy transition moving towards renewable power solutions, Aggreko continued to work closely with Gold Fields to devise a power strategy that would introduce renewable power without comprising any reliability.

And so, began the journey to integrate 7.7MWp of solar power generation and 2MW / 1MWh battery storage with the existing gas supply as a hybrid power station - under one contract and with no capital outlay.

• 7.7MWp solar power
• 23,040 solar panels
• 3,004 posts
• 1700m fencing
• 72 DC to AC inverters
• 81,000 bolts
• 30,000m copper cable
• 6,000,000Wac output solar
• 7,695,360Wdc input solar
• 1,000,000,000 flies
• Covering 22.68 Hectares, which is the equivalent of 181 Olympic Sized Swimming pools, 22 International Rugby Fields or 11 Melbourne Cricket Grounds

Battery Storage System

• 1,217,280Wh of energy from batteries
• 2,434,560W of maximum discharge / charge power from batteries
• 192 battery modules
• 4224 Lithium-Ion cells
• 10,368kg of batteries
• Reaction time of system switch from DC/AC and vice versa = 200ms