Mount Piper Power Station
{{#badges: CoalSwarm|Navbar-Australiacoal}}Mount Piper power station is a 1,400-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in New South Wales, Australia.
Contents
Location
The map below shows the location of the plant, near Portland, New South Wales.
Background on Plant
Mount Piper Power Station is a 2 x 700-megawatt (MW) subcritical power station owned by EnergyAustralia, which is itself a subsidiary of CLP Group. It was commissioned in 1993-1996.[1]
Ownership
The plant was owned and operated by the government-owned utility, Delta Electricity, and then sold to EnergyAustralia. On its website in October 2009 Delta stated of the Mt Piper Power station that "when both generating units are operating at full load, approximately 14,000 tonnes of coal are consumed daily, leaving some 3,500 tonnes of ash to be disposed of each day."[2]
Coal supply
Coal is supplied from Centennial Coal's Angus Place Colliery, which is approximately 5km to the east of the power station.[3]
Expansion considered
On January 12, 2010 the then NSW Minister for Planning, Tony Kelly, approved a "concept plan" for Delta Electricity establishing up to an additional 2000 MW coal or gas-fired plant near the existing Mt Piper 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."[4]
In its November 2011 review of the major electricity generation projects under consideration in Australia, the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics 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.[5] The following year BREE reported that there had been no change in the status of the project.[6]
The project was not mentioned in BREE's 2013 update on major electricity generation projects.[7]
In July 2019 EnergyAustralia announced plans to upgrade the plants two units to increase their capacity by 30 MW each. The upgrades would be completed by 2020 for Unit 1 and 2021 for Unit 2.[8]
Project timeline
- January 12, 2010: NSW Minister for Planning, Tony Kelly, approved a "concept plan" for an additional 2000 MW coal or gas-fired plant.[4]
Project Details of expansion
- Sponsor: EnergyAustralia
- Parent company: CLP Group
- Location: Portland, New South Wales
- Coordinates: -33.358087,150.032036 (exact)
- Status: Cancelled
- Gross Capacity: Up to 2000 MW
- Type: Ultra-supercritical[4]
- Projected in service:
- Coal Type: Black
- Coal Source: unspecified but most likely central west NSW
- Source of financing:
Articles and Resources
Related SourceWatch Articles
References
- ↑ "EnergyAustralia acquires Mt Piper and Wallerawang power stations", Media Release, July 25, 2013.
- ↑ "Mt Piper", Delta Electricity website, accessed October 2009.
- ↑ "Operations & Community: Angus Place", Centennial Coal website, accessed June 2014.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Concept approval", NSW Government Department of Planning, January 12, 2010. (Detailed documentation on the project is available here)
- ↑ Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, "2011 November: Major electricity generation projects", November 2011, page 21.
- ↑ Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, "2012 November: Major electricity generation projects", November 2012, page 19.
- ↑ Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, "2013 November: Major electricity generation projects", October 2013, page 21.
- ↑ EnergyAustralia to upgrade Mt Piper power station in New South Wales, Power Technology, Jul. 8, 2019
