Comments on: Backup generators and the 1982 New South Wales power crisis

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 04:30:01 +0000

In reply to Druid Nhil. Thanks for the extra background history.

By: Druid Nhil

Druid Nhil — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 23:54:35 +0000

I recall that Liddell was planned to replace many of the older power stations and that’s why ELCOM started deferring maintenance on the older power stations. The wind fault was due to a design error by the manufacture in assessing electric field stresses around the corners of some of the Liddell windings. It was as a type fault in all the units and by the time it was clear how dire the situation was reliability could not be improved on the older units. This event initiated a knee jerk reaction and started the excessive building of the 660MW units at Eraring, Bayswater and Mt Piper. It got out of control and ELCOM cancelled their order for the last two Bayswater units. As part of the expansion the 500kV backbone from Bayswater to Mt Piper to Marulan was built. Considered at the time by many as also excessive was operated at 330kV for many years. Now days this 500kV line will be the backbone for renewable development in western NSW and is one the engineering marvels of NSW.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 16:44:35 +0000

I remember the black outs……..white bay power station across the road was recommissioned as was pyrmont.
Luckily got to visit both whilst operating……..and noisy as I might add.
I still remember The whine of the turbines in white bay

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 04:50:32 +0000

In reply to Ash.

I have considered it, but have lots of reasons why it’s down low on the list of things I’d do:

– my spare time is already taken up with photos and blog posts,
– I’d have to brush up on my video editing skills, and finally…
– I prefer reading about things than watching videos, so I wouldn’t even watch my own content. 😛

By: Ash

Ash — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 21:07:38 +0000

Good job mate. Have you considered turning this blog into a vlog as well? I follow youtubers such as Tom Scott and Jay Foreman, who seem to have similar style of topics/ interests.

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 23:20:57 +0000

In reply to Andrew.

As for the drilling rig, ‘Ocean Onyx’ was dropped off by semi-submersible heavy transport ship Blue Marlin in April.

https://www.vicports.vic.gov.au/News/Pages/blue-marlin-entry-to-the-bay.aspx

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 23:18:31 +0000

In reply to Andrew. Delays to the construction of Newport Power Station during the 1970s led to power shortages - a post on that topic is also in the queue. :-)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 09:45:38 +0000

I remember power shortages in Victoria because of industrial action in the 70s and 80s, I have no memory the NSW shortages and restrictions. Malcolm’s pet project the supplementary Snowy hydro scheme is very dependant on rainfall, which in our country can be very variable. What isn’t variable here is sun, wind and tides.

BTW, do you know what the rig is in the bay that we could see from Altona Beach last week? Kind of south west.

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 01:03:06 +0000

In reply to Tony Taylor.

Funny that you mentioned that – I’ve got a blog post in the queue covering the use of natural gas for electricity generation in Victoria. 😉

By: Tony Taylor

Tony Taylor — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 00:36:13 +0000

Snowy Hydro has a gas fired aero-derivative plant next to Loy Yang A. It uses Pratt & Whitney Thunderchief engines. Can’t remember how long they take to start supplying power, but it’s not long. Works like a charm, too. The only real problem they had was when they tried to synchronise the first turbine; it was a finicky procedure trying to synch the hot gas turbine to the network, but once they got the first one sorted it was all system go.