SDP’s 2025 Year in Review: Resilient, renewable and ready for the future

SDP’s 2025 Year in Review: Resilient, renewable and ready for the future

Throughout 2025, the Sydney Desalination Plant (SDP) played a central role supporting Sydney’s water network, operating year‑round as the city’s only significant rainfall‑independent source.

The Plant has been ready year-round to provide support whenever the need arose.

The result? About 20,000 million litres of high quality drinking water was delivered to Sydneysiders in 2025. This is equivalent to the annual water use of around 115,000 households or approximately 8,000 Olympic swimming pools.

Outside of supplementing Sydney’s water needs, the Plant played a crucial role in helping to manage water quality challenges following storms and flooding. It also provided headroom for Sydney Water to complete major maintenance, ensuring taps kept running with high quality, uninterrupted drinking water.

However, the Plant has the capacity to do so much more. It can produce up to 250 million litres per day, remaining a flexible asset in a changing climate of extreme and unpredictable weather. We remain prepared to scale our operations as required to support the network.

Looking ahead in 2026, we will continue to invest in reliability, safety and sustainability. To support a growing city, we remain dedicated to delivering safe, reliable and high‑quality drinking water through droughts, floods, maintenance and everything in between.

Highlights from 2025

– We continued to delivery on our environmental initiatives that included releasing an additional 800 Green and Gold Bell Frog tadpoles as part of our breeding program, assisting in the rehabilitation of 326 square metres of seagrass in Botany Bay and continued to support the feeding of hungry koala’s at Symbio Wildlife Park through our 800 eucalyptus tree plantation.

– We launched our Tempe pipeline mural, the story of Naggangbi. Co-created with Re‑Right Collective and young First Nations artists, the 800‑metre artwork along Airport Drive and Alexandra Canal celebrates Bidjigal, Gadigal and Dharawal stories and Country, weaving local symbols, seagulls, oysters, wattle, and a boomerang‑inspired waterway motif rooted in mangrove country. The mural has also since been nominated for an NSW Australian Water Association Water Award for Public Artwork Commission

– Reece Karamihas, our General Manager Operations appeared on Channel 7’s Better Homes and Garden to talk all things desalination.

– We kicked off our Customer and Stakeholder Engagement Program, engaging meaningfully with customers to support the development of a regulatory proposal that will be submitted to September 2026 which will be aligned with the long term interests of water users in Greater Sydney.

– Utilities Trust of Australia, managed by Morrison, acquired Ontario Teachers’ 60% stake to take full ownership of SDP. Having co‑owned the Plant since 2012, Utilities Trust of Australia’s long‑term commitment provides continuity for our people and customers as we continue delivering high‑quality drinking water.

Sydney’s climate‑proof water backbone: Inside Sydney Desalination Plant’s ability to expand

As extreme weather events, droughts and floods occur more often and with less predictability, Sydney needs a reliable, climate‑independent drinking water sources that keep homes, jobs and essential services running while giving Sydney Water the flexibility to manage critical maintenance and water quality without disruption to supply, even in the absence of drought.

Sydney Desalination Plant outlines its ability to double its capacity and strengthen Sydney’s resilience to droughts, floods, system issues and water quality challenges.

1 December 2025

Powering reliable water supply: How Sydney Desalination Plant runs on 100% renewable energy

An inside look at how Sydney Desalination Plant is 100% powered by sustainable energy. Our General Manager Strategy and Commercial, Iftekhar Omar speaks to the deliberate, forward-thinking strategy that pairs water security with cleaner operations, offering a glimpse of what it takes to make essential infrastructure both dependable and greener.

20 November 2025

National Water Week 2025: Bringing water in focus

For National Water Week 2025, the Australian Water Association invited all Australians to Bring Water into Focus – a new call to action that encourages people to see water not just as a resource, but as the invisible thread connecting everything in our lives.

30 October 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Sydney Desalination Plant operating?
While the Plant was originally designed to operate only in times of drought, it has remained operational since 2019 to help address several storage dam water quality issues arising from bushfires, flooding and significant maintenance tasks in Sydney Water’s supply network.

The Sydney Desalination Plant’s WICA Network Operator’s Licence enables the Plant to remain operational, recognising that the Plant has always been, and will continue to be, an essential component of Sydney’s water management and an integral part of our city’s water-resilient future.
How much water does the Plant produce?
The Plant can provide up to 15 per cent of Sydney’s average drinking water needs without any reliance on rainfall.

It treats, filters and re-mineralises seawater to produce up to 91.25 gigalitres per annum of high-quality drinking water.

Under our WICA Network Operator’s Licence, the Plant will operate on a “flexible full-time basis”, producing between about 20 gigalitres to 91.25 gigalitres every year.
What does desalinated water taste like?
Sydney Desalination Plant water is treated to taste the same as Sydney’s other drinking water.

Like dam water, water from the desalination plant is treated to meet Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, which makes it among the best in the world.
Who owns the Plant?
Sydney Desalination Plant is jointly owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and the Utilities Trust of Australia, which is managed by Morrison. Find out more on our About Us page.

Why is desalination important?
The Sydney Desalination Plant is Sydney’s only major sources of non-rainfall dependent drinking water. It is one effective way of securing Sydney’s water supply against the effects of climate change and natural disasters and the increase in demand due to population growth, warmer weather and urban greening projects.

While the Plant was originally designed to respond to Australia’s severe millennium drought, recent experiences have demonstrated that drought is only one type of event that requires support from the Plant to ensure clean and safe drinking water for Greater Sydney.

The Plant has been a reliable drinking water supply during floods and bushfires, which caused water quality challenges from time to time in Sydney’s storage dams.
Where does the water go?
The Plant can supply water to homes and businesses south of Sydney Harbour and as far west as Bankstown, as part of all their water supply.

Sydney Water uses a variety of water sources to supply customer needs. Where your water comes from depends on demand and where in Sydney you live.

If you live in the blue-shaded area on this map, you may receive water from the dams, the Sydney Desalination Plant or a combination of both. The Plant's water proportion will change throughout the day due to variations in supply and demand.

Everyone will benefit from desalination because it allows more water to be left in the dams, which means a more secure water supply for Sydney.
How much energy does the Plant use?
The Sydney Desalination Plant requires roughly 38 megawatts at full production and is 100 per cent powered by renewable energy.

The average energy needed to provide drinking water to one household is about the same as the energy used to run a household fridge.
What’s the impact on the environment?
Sydney Desalination Plant places a high priority on minimising any environmental impacts – both on land and in the water.

To support this, the Plant has put in place a world first stringent six-year marine environment monitoring program. The marine environment was monitored for three years before construction and three years after the Plant became operational. It demonstrated that the Plant has minimal effect on the marine environment.

On land, a third of the Plant site at Kurnell has been maintained as a conservation area. This area is protected, and native species of flora and fauna are regularly monitored. This includes a program to survey the numbers of grey-headed flying foxes and green and golden bell frogs in the area.