A Pilbara lithium mine takes at least 325 GWh a year for 20 years from Fortescue's solar and battery grid - the cents are blank, the supply is not firm, and the on-site battery stays
PLS told the ASX on 28 October 2026 that Pilgangoora signed a 20-year contract with Fortescue for a minimum of 325 GWh a year, aimed at 2029. The mine's note puts connection and power upgrades at about $150 million and an expected cut of about $15 to $20 a tonne in operating cost. No cents per kilowatt-hour are printed. Supply is not firm. The plant keeps gas engines, solar, diesel and a battery, and drops a planned interim on-site solar stage. Fortescue's note of 27 October says the mine funds the whole line. PLS says it funds and owns about 20 km of it.
A mine is a workplace with a power bill large enough to sign a 20-year contract. This contract is for power from someone else's solar, wind and batteries. The price per unit is not on either page.
On 28 October 2026 PLS told the ASX that Pilgangoora Operations has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with FMG Clean Energy, a Fortescue subsidiary. The contract is a committed minimum of 325 gigawatt-hours a year, for the mine's P2000 expansion. Supply is aimed at calendar 2029. PLS puts the connection and on-site power upgrades at about $150 million, spread as about $20 million in the 2027 financial year, $85 million in 2028 and $45 million in 2029. 20 plus 85 plus 45 is 150, by our arithmetic. The note prints each figure as approximate. The new connection is sized above 100 megawatts. Dollars in the PLS note are Australian dollars.
The wire. PLS says a new line of about 25 kilometres, at 220 kilovolts, will tie the mine to Fortescue's Turner River solar farm and a 220 kilovolt substation. PLS says it will fund and own about 20 kilometres of that line, along the mine access road, into a new 220/33 kilovolt substation at Pilgangoora, with the site's own lines lifted to 33 kilovolts. Fortescue's note of 27 October says something sharper. It says PLS will fund the entire transmission line and own 20 kilometres of it, with Fortescue owning the rest. One page has the mine paying for the whole line. The other has the mine funding and owning about 20 kilometres. The pages do not share one sentence.
The power is a mix, and it can stop. PLS says the processing plant and the other loads will draw on the Fortescue grid and on generation the mine already has: LNG-fuelled gas engines, solar and diesel at the Pilgan and Ngungaju stations, and battery energy storage systems. Supply under the contract is not firm. PLS says it will expand on-site generation to cover an interruption. The note does not print the megawatts or the megawatt-hours of the battery already there.
The contract is not effective on the day of the announcement. PLS says conditions come first, or a waiver, including a related construction agreement between PLS and Fortescue that has itself become unconditional. Switch-on in 2029 also waits on design, approvals, construction and commissioning. Fortescue's page says supply is expected to commence in 2029 and calls 325 gigawatt-hours the annual electricity use of around 45,000 Australian homes. That home count is Fortescue's comparison. It is not a count of workplaces.
The saving is not a tariff. PLS says unit operating costs, free on board, are expected to fall by about $15 to $20 a tonne against the 10-year average it announced with the P2000 decision. The note points to its 16 October 2026 release for that average and does not restate the average here. No cents per kilowatt-hour appear. A tonne of lithium product is not a kilowatt-hour. Dividing $15 by a number of kilowatt-hours the page does not print would invent a price.
An on-site solar stage comes off the plan. PLS says a review of its power strategy keeps an emissions path and removes the interim stage it had sketched, and the on-site solar investment that went with that stage. The note does not print the megawatts of the solar that came off. What stays is the generation already there, including the battery. Stage 1 of the strategy, already done, is a cut of about 20% in power-related emissions intensity in the 2025 financial year against the baseline, through new gas-fired generation, LNG storage and the battery. The battery on that line sits beside gas. It is not a solar-only box.
The emissions figures are a forecast. PLS prints a baseline of 0.69 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per megawatt-hour in the 2023 financial year, and about 0.13 on the strategy, and calls the cut up to about 80%, inside the original 2030 financial-year window. 0.69 minus 0.13, divided by 0.69, is about 81%, by our arithmetic. The page does not print 81. It says the forecast assumes Fortescue's grid is built as modelled, and it labels the statements as forward-looking. Net zero for the company's scope 1 and scope 2 emissions is an ambition for the decade that starts in 2040. Scope 1 is fuel the site burns itself. Scope 2 is electricity it buys.
Fortescue describes the grid the power comes from. Solar, wind, battery storage, transmission, and a control system. More than 1.3 gigawatts of solar and wind are already running or under construction, and more than 1 gigawatt-hour of batteries. The grid is expected to reach 2.4 gigawatts of solar and wind, firmed by 4 to 5 gigawatt-hours of batteries. Firmed, here, means the batteries are there so the solar and wind can be sold as steadier power. Fortescue says 550 kilometres of a planned 660 kilometre network are already built, and that it is installing more than 6,000 panels a day. It prices the mine expansion the line will help power at A$1.9 billion. PLS calls the expansion P2000 and does not print A$1.9 billion on this note.
The diesel line is not a battery price. Fortescue says it used 680 million litres of diesel last year, and that every 10-cent rise in the diesel price adds almost US$70 million to its annual costs. The note does not name the year behind "last year". It does not print a cents figure for the power PLS will buy. It does not print what it costs to charge the 4 to 5 gigawatt-hours of batteries. A battery is filled from somewhere. A diesel saving that leaves out the fill is a different sum from the contract. The same gap sits on the gas-peaker note: a battery-versus-fuel comparison that skips the cost of the charge.
PLS managing director Dale Henderson said the contract brings lower-cost, lower-emissions power to Pilgangoora. Fortescue chief executive Dino Otranto said PLS is the first customer on the grid.
Analogy: buying the neighbour's solar and battery is a different piece of paper from panels on your own roof. The neighbour's cents are blank. Your own battery stays, because the neighbour's supply can stop. The esky is filled from somewhere, and neither page prints the cost of the fill.
Good: Two dated company pages, a minimum volume, a year, a capital figure, a plain line that supply is not firm, and a plain line that the on-site battery stays.
Bad: No cents per kilowatt-hour. The two pages do not agree on who pays for the whole line. The $15 to $20 is per tonne of product. The on-site battery has no size on the page. The solar stage that came off the plan has no size either. Conditions sit in front of the contract.
Ugly: Dividing 325 gigawatt-hours into a tariff the pages do not print. Reading the diesel litres as the cost of the batteries. Dropping the on-site gas, diesel and battery because a green-grid contract was signed. Treating 2029 as switched on in 2026. Adding the Fortescue A$1.9 billion to a PLS sentence that does not print it.
Soft next step: write the blank cents line, the not-firm line, and the on-site battery on the same sheet.
Source: PLS Group, ASX announcement, 28 Oct 2026 - long-term power agreement. Primary for the 20-year contract with FMG Clean Energy, a minimum of 325 GWh a year, the P2000 expansion, supply aimed at calendar 2029, about $150 million of connection and power upgrades split about $20 million, $85 million and $45 million across the 2027, 2028 and 2029 financial years, a connection above 100 MW, Australian dollars, the about 25 km 220 kV line to the Turner River solar farm and substation, PLS funding and owning about 20 km into a new 220/33 kV substation with site lines lifted to 33 kV, the mix of Green Grid power with existing LNG gas engines, solar, diesel and battery storage at Pilgan and Ngungaju, supply not firm, on-site generation to be expanded for an interruption, conditions including a construction agreement becoming unconditional, the expected $15 to $20 a tonne free-on-board operating-cost cut against the 10-year average in the 16 October 2026 P2000 note, removal of the interim stage and its on-site solar investment, the stage 1 cut of about 20% in the 2025 financial year via gas-fired generation, LNG storage and batteries, the 0.69 and about 0.13 tonnes of CO2-e per MWh intensities, the "up to about 80%" cut inside the 2030 financial-year window, and the net-zero scope 1 and scope 2 ambition for the decade commencing 2040. 20 + 85 + 45 = 150, and (0.69 − 0.13) / 0.69 is about 81%: both are our arithmetic. The page prints neither result. It does not print a cents-per-kilowatt-hour price, the on-site battery's megawatts or megawatt-hours, the megawatts of the solar stage removed, or A$1.9 billion. Fortescue, 27 Oct 2026 - first Green Grid power deal. Primary for PLS as the first external customer, the 20-year minimum of 325 GWh with supply expected in 2029, the comparison with about 45,000 Australian homes, PLS funding the entire transmission line and owning 20 km with Fortescue owning the remainder, the A$1.9 billion expansion, 550 km of a planned 660 km network already built, the grid as solar, wind, battery storage, transmission and control, more than 1.3 GW of solar and wind and more than 1 GWh of batteries already operating or under construction, an expected 2.4 GW of solar and wind firmed by 4 to 5 GWh of batteries, more than 6,000 panels a day, 680 million litres of diesel last year with the year unnamed, and almost US$70 million a year for each 10-cent rise in the diesel price. The page does not print a cents price for the contract or a cost to charge the batteries. Dale Henderson and Dino Otranto are named on the two notes as the executives quoted.