Southern Cross

Southern Cross is located in BHP Nickel West’s operations in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TransAlta, supplying power to BHP Nickel West’s operations.

Southern Cross extends from Kalgoorlie to Kambalda and is connected to the South West Interconnected System. In addition to supplying BHP Nickel West operations, the network supplies third-party mining customers and provides back-up generation to the town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Southern Cross power stations are fueled by natural gas through the Goldfields Gas Transmission Pipeline, and diesel through a variety of sources.

In total, a combined gas- and diesel-fired capacity of 245 megawatts is available from power stations at Kalgoorlie, Kambalda, Leinster and Mt. Keith. It also includes approximately 500 kilometers of transmission lines, and distribution facilities, making it one of Western Australia’s largest off- grid hybrid systems

In 2023, Southern Cross added battery and renewable energy capacity with separate solar facilities at Leinster (11 megawatts) and Mount Keith (27 megawatts), as well as a battery energy storage system at Leinster (10 megawatts/5 megawatt-hours).