1.1.

Overview of the Newcastle Gas Storage Facility

The Newcastle Gas Storage Facility (NGSF) is a project that will take gas from the
network during low usage times, liquefy the gas and store it in a large tank, and
then put gas back into the network during periods of high demand. This type of
facility is often termed a peaker, i.e. smooth the peaks in demand.
The facility will be located in Tomago, north of the Tomago Aluminium Company
(TAC) and 1.5 km east of the Pacific Highway. The concept layout is shown on
Figure 1.
The project consists of various parts:
Access to site
Site preparation
Gas liquefaction plant
Gas pipelines
Connection of services

The Site
The site is a rectangular block of around 42 hectares, which is bounded on the
north and east by fire trails and AusGrid electrical power easements. The
western end of the block will be used for the NGSF.
An area of approx. 21 hectares will be cleared and levelled to house the
permanent facilities and the construction areas.
The main storage tank will be sited at the geographical centre of the block.
The finished level of the site will be set to balance the movement of soil within
the cleared areas. The intention is that no fill will be imported or exported from
the site.
The site is located above an aquifer that supplies drinking water to Newcastle and
hence every effort will be made to ensure that the aquifer is not contaminated.
All surface runoff will be sloped to the south-west corner of the site away from
aquifer and collected surface water will then be pumped down to the Old Punt
Road (OPR) for disposal.
The finished level for the site will be at an average of around 6.3 m above chart
datum.
The water table is at about 4.0 m above chart datum.
The site will house the gas processing facilities (liquefaction, storage and
gasification), utilities, control room, administration building, workshops and fire
fighting facilities.
1.3. Site Access
Two means of access will be provided to the site.
The main access will be from TAC Northern Access Road, which is off the north
end of Old Punt Road. A permanent built up road will be provided. The access
route is within a 30 m wide easement through TAC land. The route runs through
some low lying areas that are prone to flooding in heavy rain. The road will be
built up through this area and appropriate culverts installed to maintain current
water drainage pathways.
The route will have 3-wire fencing along the boundary. A security gate will be
provided near the entrance to the access road. A motorized sliding gate will be
provided which can be opened using security card or from the control room
communications and CCTV at the gate.
There is an existing AusGrid easement for the overhead power cables (northsouth).
There will be no high level metallic fencing/facilities within this