Tallawarra Power Station is a combined cycle

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

in the city of

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wa ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. Owned and operated by

EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based and listed China Light and Power (CLP Group). EnergyAustralia also ...

, the station is the first of its type in New South Wales and produces electricity for the state during periods of high demand. It is located on the western shore of

Lake Illawarra Lake Illawarra ( Aboriginal Tharawal language: various adaptions of ''Elouera'', ''Eloura'', or ''Allowrie''; ''Illa'', ''Wurra'', or ''Warra'' meaning pleasant place near the sea, or, high place near the sea, or, white clay mountain), is an ope ...

in the suburb of

Yallah Yallah is a western suburb in the City of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, located on the western shore of Lake Illawarra. It contains a mixture of rural, commercial and light industrial areas. Etymology ''Yallah'' is an Australian Abo ...

. The station comprises a gas turbine and a steam turbine unit and has a total capacity of . It uses many of the previous power station's structures including the cooling system channels from Lake Illawarra. The power station is connected to the state grid via a 132kV switching station maintained by Endeavour Energy (Previously known as Integral Energy). TRUenergy has also indicated that an additional power plant is being considered for the site, to be known as Tallawarra B.

History

Tallawarra originally operated as a

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 ...

-fired power station beginning in 1954 and reaching full operation by 1961. At its peak, it had a capacity output of . 'A' station had four

Thomson-Houston The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was a manufacturing company which was one of the precursors of the General Electric company. History The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was formed in 1882 in the United States when a group of Lynn, Massa ...

2 stage (HP+LP) turbo generators. Steam was supplied by four

Simon Carves Simon Carves Engineering Ltd. is an engineering company headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1878 by Henry Simon and is a subsidiary of Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding. History Simon Carves was founded in 1878 by Henry Sim ...

pulverised fuel boilers at at a pressure of and a temperature of . In 1960 "B" station was built having two English Electric 3-stage turbo generators (No. 5+6). The generators were hydrogen-cooled but didn't have any stator water cooling. Steam was supplied by 2 ICAL pulverised coal burning boilers at a rate of at a pressure of and a temperature of . The station closed in 1989, and stood abandoned by the foreshore of Lake Illawarra. It was demolished over a ten-year period. In early 2003 the site was sold by Pacific Power to TRUenergy (then known as TXU) and construction of the gas-fired combined cycle plant began in November 2006. The plant consists of a gas turbine of and a 3-stage steam turbine of with a single generator. A unique feature is the waste heat boiler with a

super heater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There are ...

and two reheater sections for the IP and LP stages of the turbine. Overall thermal efficiency is 60%. It was opened by the NSW Premier

Nathan Rees Nathan Rees () (born 12 February 1968) is a former Australian politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales division of the Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees wa ...

on 18 March 2009.

References

{{Illawarra region topics Natural gas-fired power stations in New South Wales Buildings and structures in Wollongong Energy infrastructure completed in 2009 2009 establishments in Australia

History

See also

References