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The Energy Brix Power Station was a
brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
fired
thermal power station A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...
located at
Morwell Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...
, in
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. The power station was used to supply electricity for the retail market, as well as the production of
briquette A briquette (; also spelled briquet) is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material (e.g. charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used for fuel and kindling to start a fire. The term derives from the French word '' ...
s in the adjacent Energy Brix briquette works. It was shut down in August 2014 and is currently the earliest surviving large-scale power station designed to provide electricity to the state electricity network.


History

Work on the power station and briquette works commenced in 1949 by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV), when field works on the Morwell open cut mine commenced, and briquette production equipment was ordered from Germany. The SECV expected the first briquette factory to start operating in 1953. But by 1952, the whole project had come to a halt. The recession of 1951 with its credit restrictions had resulted in dismissal of half of the workforce, while equipment for the first two factories lay in limbo at the site. Delivery of the further two factories had been deferred. In 1955 the project was recommenced. Although the SECV decided to persevere with the first two briquette factories, it cancelled the orders for the planned third and fourth, halving the capacity of briquette production before it had even bugun. The Morwell project's priorities were now changed from briquetting to electrical power generation. Originally known as the Morwell Power Station, production at the plant started in 1956, with the briquettes produced used for domestic and industrial use, as well as
town gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
production for Melbourne at an adjacent
gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...
by the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria. Morwell Station consisted of one Low Pressure 20MW Metropolitan Vickers axial turbine, three High Pressure 30MW Metropolitan Vickers axial turbo generators and one 60MW (Total) Stal Laval cotra-rotating radial turbine. Steam was supplied by pulverized brown coal-fired boilers made by Mitchell. Eight Boilers supplied 8.7MPa 490Celsious Super Heated High Pressure Steam into a Range that supplied the Three 30MW Metropolitan Vickers Turbines which exhaust of those turbines went into a process main (300Kpa 175Celsious). The Process Main supplied steam to the LP 20MW Metropolitan Vickers Turbine (Which had a condenser and was attached to Marley Forced Draft American Redwood Cooling Towers North of the Power Station and Briquette Factory) and up to 24 Briquette Factory Driers. 8.7MPa 490Celsious Super Heated High Pressure Steam out of the range from the Eight Boilers also supplied steam to the Stal Laval cotra-rotating radial turbine which had a condenser and Marley Forced Draft American Redwood Cooling Towers south of the Power Station. It was unexpectedly discovered that coal from the Morwell open cut mine, with its high alkali and sulphur content, was not suitable for briquetting. The briquettes deteriorated quickly and fouled the boilers. In order to produce usable briquettes,
Yallourn Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station, Victoria, Yal ...
coal had to be transported to supply the Morwell briquette factories on the interconnecting railway, which was an additional cost. At this time, a decline in demand for briquettes was becoming evident, due to competition from oil, electricity for domestic heating, and several years later, the discovery of natural gas in Bass Strait. The same year the station and briquette factory came into production (1956), the SEC announced a new, much larger power station -
Hazelwood Power Station The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal-fuelled thermal power station located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, Australia. Built between 1964 and 1971, the 1,600-megawatt-capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW uni ...
, was to be built to the south of the Morwell Open Cut. On Boxing Day 2003 a fire destroyed the coal cross-over conveyor that fed B, C & D briquette plants. Following the fire, only A plant continued in operation, effectively operating at 1/8th of intended capacity until closure. The Briquette Factory was taken off for the last time in August 2014. The last boiler and turbine in the power station was taken off on 8 September 2014. Around 75 people lost their jobs not including many more employees that were not directly employed by the Briquette Factory and Power Station. In its heyday the "Morwell Briquette and Power" as it was then known employed around 1000 people and the power station was designed to be what's known as an "Island Station", which meant it could be used to supply power needed to run start up plant at other power stations in the area if for some reason they all were temporarily shut down.


Privatisation

The power station and briquette works were split from the SECV in November 1993, when former Morwell Briquette and Power division was established as a
government business enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...
named Energy Brix Australia (This name meant "Bricks of Energy" referring to the Briquettes). At the time of the split, the plant employed 370 people, and exported of briquettes to Germany, Slovenia, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Cyprus. Energy Brix Australia was sold on 4 August 1996. In February 2006 a licence was granted to the company for the retail sale of electricity from its plant.


Process

Heat was reclaimed from the turbine bled steam produced by electricity generation, and used to dry brown coal from up to 65%
moisture Moisture is the presence of a liquid, especially water, often in trace amounts. Small amounts of water may be found, for example, in the air (humidity), in foods, and in some commercial products. Moisture also refers to the amount of water vapo ...
down to 10% for use in coal
briquettes A briquette (; also spelled briquet) is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material (e.g. charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used for fuel and kindling to start a fire. The term derives from the French wor ...
manufactured on the site for both domestic consumption and export. The Energy Brix power station has five
steam turbines A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
with a combined generation capacity of . The power station sourced raw
brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
for briquette production via train from the Yallourn and Loy Yang open cut mines, and it's steaming coal for power generation from the Morwell open cut mine.
Carbon Monitoring for Action The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development. History It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, direc ...
estimates this power station emits of
greenhouse gases A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), methane ...
each year as a result of burning
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
. The Australian Government has announced the introduction of a
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (or CPRS) was a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for anthropogenic greenhouse gases proposed by the Rudd government, as part of its climate change policy, which had been due to commence in Australia in ...
commencing in 2010 to help combat climate change. It is expected to impact on emissions from power stations. The National Pollutant Inventory provides details of other pollutant emissions, but, as at 23 November 2008, not .


See also

*
List of power stations in Victoria The following page lists all active and former power stations in Victoria, Australia. Power stations smaller than in nameplate capacity are not listed. Loy Yang is the largest Power Station by capacity in Victoria. Currently active Coal f ...
* State Electricity Commission of Victoria


References


External links


Energy Brix Australia
{{EnergyVictoria Coal-fired power stations in Victoria (Australia) Morwell, Victoria 1959 establishments in Australia 2014 disestablishments in Australia Energy infrastructure completed in 1959 Victorian Heritage Register City of Latrobe