Bayswater power station

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Bayswater Power Station is a 2,640-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station in New South Wales, Australia.

A 2,000-MW coal- or gas-fired plant near the existing Bayswater Power Station has been proposed.

Location

The undated satellite photo below shows the power station, near Muswellbrook, in Hunter Region, New South Wales.

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Background

The Bayswater power station was commissioned between 1985 and 1986 and generates 2,640 megawatts (MW) from four 660MW subcritical units. The power station consumes approximately 7.5 million tonnes per year.

Ownership

The power station is owned by Macquarie Generation, which in turn is owned by AGL Energy.

Macquarie Generation was a government-owned business which was established in 1996 and boasts that it is "Australia's largest electricity generator." In 2014 Macquarie Generation was privatised with AGL Energy buying the assets.

AGL Increasing Capacity

In February 2018 AGL announced that it would be investing A$200 million to upgrade Bayswater and install new turbines that would increase the plant's overall capacity by 100 MW. The installation of the new turbines would begin in February 2019. "AGL first flagged its intention to upgrade the power station as part of its plan to replace the 2000 megawatts that will be removed from the system when the Liddell coal-fired power station – which is located less than five kilometres from Bayswater – closes down in 2022."

In September of 2018, Environmental Justice Australia stated that the Bayswater upgrade lacked the air pollution reduction technology that is standard in America, Europe, China and India, and should therefore be rejected.

Bayswater B power station

On January 12, 2010 the then NSW Minister for Planning, Tony Kelly, approved a "concept plan" for Macquarie Generation establishing a 2000 MW coal or gas-fired plant near the existing Bayswater Power Station. The approval was subject to further environmental assessment on a specific proposal. The decision stated that "this concept approval shall lapse ten years after the date of its approval by the Minister unless works the subject of any related project approval are physically commenced on or before that date."

In its November 2011 review of the major electricity generation projects under consideration in Australia, the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) noted that a 2000 MW expansion of the power station was under consideration though no decision had been made on whether it would be coal or gas-fired. BREE described the potential expansion as a "less advanced project".

The following year BREE reported that there had been no change in the status of the project.

The project was not mentioned at all in BREE's 2013 update on major electricity generation projects.

Macquarie Generation was acquired by AGL Energy in June 2014, including the development site for Bayswater B, if AGL pursues the project.

Flyash management

On its website Conneq Industrial Infrastructure states that it "manages operations and maintenance of the fly ash handling and disposal system" at Macquarie Generation's Bayswater Power Station, New South Wales. The company states that it "is responsible for the plant and equipment which removes fly ash from the station fabric filter plant and pneumatically conveys the material to an adjacent dense phase slurry plant. Conneq is also responsible for the survey, repair and maintenance of the station’s pulverised fuel milling plant." Conneq states that it has been operating at the power station since 1997. Conneq is a member of the Ash Development Association of Australia, a lobby group promoting the use of coal-fired power station waste in building and other materials.

Emissions

In May 2017 internal documents obtained from Macquarie, which operated Bayswater until 2014, revealed a strategy used to mask emissions from the plant and avoid triggering pollution alerts. The documents open "a whole host of issues about compliance now and over the past couple of decades," said Adam Searle, Labor's energy spokesman. "But it's also about what these power stations are doing today."

In September 2018 the group Environmental Justice Australia called on the national government to reject the Bayswater upgrade until the plant installs new air pollution reduction technology. Fine particle emissions from Bayswater rose by 69% in 2017, according to government data.

Project Details for Bayswater B Power Expansion

• Sponsor: Macquarie Generation
• Parent company: AGL Energy
• Location: Muswellbrook, Hunter Region, New South Wales, Australia
• Coordinates: -32.395833, 150.949167 (exact)
• Status: Cancelled
• Capacity: 2,000 MW
• Type:
• Projected in service:
• Coal Type:
• Coal Source:
• Source of financing:

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