Loy Yang Power Station, Victoria

Loy Yang Power Station is a brown coal fired power station located on the outskirts of the city of Traralgon, in south eastern Victoria, Australia. Loy Yang is a base load supply station, and produces about one third of Victoria's electricity requirements.

History

Loy Yang was originally constructed through the 1980s by International Combustion Australia Ltd. who was contracted by the government owned State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV). It consists of two separate units, Loy Yang A and Loy Yang B. Constructed in stages, it was originally planned that the Loy Yang complex would consist of eight generating units, of 525 megawatts each upon completion. The privatisation of the SECV resulted in only six generating units being completed, four in Loy Yang A and two in Loy Yang B.

Coal supply

Four giant bucket-wheel excavators, called dredgers, operate 24 hours a day in the Loy Yang open cut mine, mostly feeding coal directly to the boilers via conveyor belt, 18 hours of reserve supply is held in a 70,000 tonne coal bunker. Each year approximately 30 million tonnes of coal are extracted from the open pit. The open cut coal mine pit is about 200 metres deep, 3 kilometres long and 2 kilometres wide at it's widest. It is estimated that at current rates of extraction there are sufficient deposits of coal in the entire Latrobe Valley region to last 1300 years.

Privatisation

The Loy Yang complex was privatised in 1995, as were most of the assets of the SECV. Loy Yang A has four generating units with a combined capacity of 2200 megawatts and is owned by GEAC, a consortium made up of AGL Limited, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Transfield Services and three superannuation funds.cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/07/31/1154198043099.html |publisher=The Age |date=2006-07-31 |accessdate=2006-12-14 |title=Transfield snaps up stake in Loy Yang A] Loy Yang B has two units with a capacity of 1050 megawatts and is owned by UK group International Power. Prior to the Victorian State Government's privatisations from the mid-1990s, a 49% stake was sold to Mission Energy. Later Edison Mission bought the complete plant, and later again sold it to the joint venture International Power Mitsui.

Protest

On September 3rd 2007 the Loy Yang complex was the target of climate change activists. The activists locked themselves to conveyor belts and reduced power production for several hours before being cut free. Four people were arrested. cite news |url=http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/apec-climate-change-protest-shuts-down-victorian-coal-power-station |publisher=Indymedia |date=2007-09-03 |accessdate=2007-09-05 |title=APEC Climate Action Shuts Down Victorian Coal Power Station A]

References

External links

* [http://www.loyyangpower.com.au Loy Yang Power]
* [http://www.ipplc.com International Power]
* [http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/raocc/videos/loyyang.ogg/view Video of protest action]