Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro project revamping old gold mine into a clean energy hub
At a glance
We're delivering engineering services for the design and construction of the ground-breaking 250 MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro project in a joint venture with Mott MacDonald as part of Queensland's AUD 62 billion clean energy plan. In a world first, this project is repurposing an abandoned gold mine into a pumped storage facility, using the old mine pits as the upper and lower water reservoirs.
The challenge
Developed by Genex Power in partnership with the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) Contractor McConnell Dowell John Holland JV, the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project repurposes an abandoned gold mine into a large-scale, long-duration energy storage facility. Located northwest of Townsville, the project forms a key part of Queensland’s AUD 62 billion clean energy plan and addresses one of the central challenges of the energy transition: how to store renewable energy at scale and provide dispatchable power to support a grid increasingly dominated by solar and wind.
The project’s complexity is significant. It involves transforming historic mine infrastructure into a fully integrated pumped hydro system while minimising environmental impacts and ensuring long-term safety and performance. Key challenges included managing complex underground conditions, designing deep shafts and caverns, integrating multiple major infrastructure elements, and coordinating construction within a highly constrained and technically demanding environment.
Our response
GHD, in joint venture with Mott MacDonald, is delivering engineering services to the EPC Contractor for the design and construction of the 250 MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project. The scheme uses the former mine pits as the upper and lower reservoirs, and forms a new dam with the reuse of waste mine rock, significantly reducing environmental disturbance and impacts.
During periods of high renewable generation, electricity from the adjacent solar facility is used to pump water from the lower to the upper reservoir. During peak demand, water is released back through reversible pump turbines to generate dispatchable electricity and provide capacity firming for the grid.
Our scope spans detailed design, construction support, and multidisciplinary coordination across a highly complex asset, including:
- Detailed design and construction supervision of the dam
- Geotechnical investigations and interpretation, supported by 3D geological modelling
- Design of underground works, including access tunnels, deep shafts, caverns and waterways
- Powerhouse and balance-of-plant design
- Co-creation and development of a federated BIM model for the entire scheme
- Co-creation and development of a Building Information Modelling (BIM) model for the entire scheme, developed collaboratively with all stakeholders
The project consists of a six-kilometre-long dam on the upper storage, 235m deep shafts and tunnels forming the waterways, two underground cavern housing two reversible pump turbines and transformers, and a surface switchyard. A 187km transmission line to a substation near Townsville will feed power into the national grid. More than 25 billion litres of water is pumped out of the lower storage to enable the underground works to be completed to fill the upper dam.
The outcome
Kidston will be one of Australia’s first large-scale pumped hydro storage facilities and a critical enabler of the renewable energy transition, providing long-duration storage and grid stability in a system with growing reliance on variable generation.
A significant milestone was recently achieved with the successful breakthrough of the tailrace tunnel, completing the tunnelling work. These tunnels carry water away from the turbines after electricity generation, marking the completion of a critical component of Australia’s first new pumped hydro project in 40 years.
Beyond Kidston, the project provides valuable insights and a practical blueprint for future pumped hydro developments in Australia and New Zealand. Building on this experience, GHD is continuing to support the industry through:
- Engineering services for the proposed 1,000 MW Borumba Pumped Hydro Storage Project in Queensland, including the design of upper and lower storage dams
- Feasibility and environmental investigations for a pumped hydro scheme at Lake Onslow in Otago, supporting New Zealand’s energy transition
- Concept, pre-feasibility, and FEED studies for over 50 pumped hydro sites, representing more than 30 GW of potential capacity
With full in-house capability spanning project origination through to construction — including geotechnical, ecological, underground, hydraulic, structural, mechanical, electrical, and transmission engineering — GHD is positioned to deliver integrated support for the transition to a low-carbon energy future.
GHD's involvement in innovative projects such as Kidston and the alignment of our core local and international service offering, provides an unrivalled platform to support the transition to renewable energy across Queensland and Australia."