Alcoa’s Portland vs San Ciprián: One is confident for a decade, the other grapples with power outages, reflecting contrasting electricity landscapes

Amid a string of challenges like a projected USD 90 million loss in Q2, delays in the recommencement of the Kwinana refinery, and production setbacks at the San Ciprián aluminium smelter in Spain due to a power outage that has unsettled Alcoa itself as well as the global aluminium industry, the reassuring message about the Portland aluminium smelter in Victoria has brought a sense of relief. Chief Executive Officer William Oplinger has ruled out all the plans to shut down the facility for at least the next decade, announcing stark contrasting news to the troubled San Ciprián smelter, which faces disruptions even before resuming the full operations as planned. He expressed, "I am sick of closing sites. I am much more focused on the Portland side, of trying to make sure we can get it repowered because I think Portland is a great plant with a great workforce and a good technology."

Doubtful about energy storage, yet confident in operations – how?

However, amid an optimistic outlook on the Portland smelter, Oplinger has doubts about battery storage as a viable firming power solution for the smelter's growing dependence on variable renewable energy sources like wind and solar. This stance differs from Rio Tinto's approach, which sees batteries as a promising solution to support its Boyne smelter in Queensland, citing rapidly declining energy storage costs. The differing perspectives between Rio Tinto and Alcoa can be better understood by examining the broader context of each company's approach to renewable energy usage.