Tourist stuff

I headed down to Glenelg on the tram.

Wondered about the ‘Polities’ signs everywhere.

Headed to the beach at Grange.

Wandered along Rundle Mall.

And visited Victoria Square.

Suburban trains

I rode Adelaide’s since retired ‘Jumbo’ railcars.

And the diesel version of Melbourne’s Comeng railcars.

Finding a six carriage consist, featuring 12 driving cabs.

And passengers riding up front beside the train driver.

I walked along the coast at Marino to capture some trains by the sea.

And stopped off at the bizarre Emerson Crossing – where the intersection of South Road and Cross Road meets the Seaford railway line at a level crossing, with the South Road Overpass passing over it all.

A run down network

I found decrepit stations like the single track terminus of Tonsley.

And the narrow platforms at Keswick.

The line up to Belair was single track, with a handful of toy-like crossing loops along the way.

And instead of automatic pedestrian gates at level crossings, illuminated ‘Caution more than one train’ warning signs were installed at passive crossings.

But there were signs of new life – the extension of suburban trains to Seaford was underway, alongside the electrification of the network.

The Gawler line was also being rebuilt.

But electrification of the line was postponed in 2013, but eventually restarted in 2019 – but has seen many delays since.

Tourist trains

I headed down to Victor Harbor to ride the Steamranger tourist railway.

Taking a trip along the cost to Goolwa and back.

I also stumbled upon the Indian Pacific headed north out of North Adelaide.

And The Ghan almost at the end of a three day journey from Darwin.

At Keswick I found the empty Great Southern Rail terminal.

Carriages for the Indian Pacific being shunted through the train wash.

And spare carriages stabled in the sidings.

Freight trains

West of Adelaide I found a massive ‘double stack’ freight train headed for Perth.

But freight trains towards Melbourne were more constrained – having to pass over the suburban tracks on the level at Goodwood Junction – grade separated in 2014 at a cost of $110 million.

And again at Torrens Junction – grade separated in 2018 at a cost of $238 million.

And buses

A trip to Adelaide isn’t complete without a ride on the O-Bahn Busway.

Buses running along concrete tracks.

Steered along by two small guide wheels.

Buses stop at three bus stations between the Adelaide CBD and Tea Tree Plaza.

‘Sump busters‘ used to prevent unauthorised vehicles from entering the busway.

Another odd feature is the double ended busway recovery truck nicknamed ‘Dumbo’.

Specially designed to enter the O-Bahn track from either direction, and tow away a broken down bus.

Power stations

Don’t you go hunting down power stations when you go on holiday?

I went past the massive 1,280 MW gas fired power station at Torrens Island.

The 58MW Port Stanvac Power Station, made up of 36 diesel generators.

And the 20 MW peaking Lonsdale Power Station, with just 18 diesel generators.

A one way freeway?

A reversible one way freeway sounds bizarre, but Adelaide used to have one – the Southern Expressway between Bedford Park and Old Noarlunga. The three lane road was setup for traffic in either direction.

Changing direction twice a day.

On and off ramps opening and closing based on the current direction of travel.

Indicated by rotating prism signs at interchanges.

With warnings signs to ensure motorists didn’t drive down the wrong way.

Opened in 1997, work on upgrading the freeway to two way operation commenced in 2011, and was completed in 2014.

And ghosts of the past

Adelaide would have to go down as a graveyard of Australian manufacturing.

Home of the former Mitsubishi engine plant at Lonsdale – closed in 2005

The Mitsubishi vehicle assembly plant at Tonsley Park, closed in 2008.

And Mobil’s mothballed Port Stanvac Refinery – demolished in 2014.

But Adelaide also had an abandoned shopping centre – the top floors of the Myer Centre.

And an abandoned international airport terminal.

Replaced by a combined domestic and international terminal in 2005.

But time to fly home

The ‘real’ Adelaide Airport was rather nice.

Big windows looking out over the city.

And a view of aircraft on the apron.

So farewell to Adelaide circa 2011.

I ended up returning in 2015 and 2019 – but travelling on The Overland instead.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Ten years ago in Adelaide appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

In the beginning

The very first power stations in Victoria were small affairs, operated by an multitude of private companies, burning black coal imported from New South Wales.

City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection – image 1088291

But as the reliable supply of electricity grew more important, this reliance on imported fuel became untenable, so the State Electricity Commission of Victoria was established to exploit the brown coal reserves of the Latrobe Valley for base load power generation.

Photo via Yallourn Association

With additional peak load capacity provided by hydro-electric generation – first from Kiewa and Eildon, and later the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme.

While at the same time, the scale of brown coal fired power stations also grew, leading to bigger and bigger holes in the Latrobe Valley.

Hunting hydrocarbons in Bass Strait

The hunt for offshore oil in Australia commenced in 1960, when BHP started exploring the waters of Bass Strait, but it was natural gas they found in February 1965. Development of the offshore platforms commenced.

And by March 1969 the first gas arrived at the onshore gas processing plant

Minister for Fuel and Power, George Oswald Reid, was excited about the new fuel.

The discovery of natural gas opens up far-reaching possibilities for Victoria, but it would be premature for me to forecast its precise effect at this stage. Natural gas is a very attractive fuel for power generation because it is clean and convenient to use. Natural gas could be used by burning the fuel in gas turbines in which the turbine is turned by hot gases instead of steam in the same way as in a jet aircraft engine. This type of machine is particularly suitable for quick starting and short period running.

And saw it’s limits.

I have already explained its possible use for peak load generation, and it will suffice here for me to mention the tremendous quantity of gas which needs to be proved before it can be effective for base load use. To supply a station of 600 to 700 megawatts capacity, it would be necessary to have available reserves of 150 million cubic feet a day for 30 years or 1.5 million million cubic feet in all. This represents about five times the present consumption of manufactured gas in Victoria and is more than the total capacity for the first Gippsland shelf field.

But the State Electric Commission of Victoria was facing a different problem – peak load capacity.

For the past ten years and up to 1974, most increments to peak load capacity have been provided by hydro-electric generation, first from Kiewa and Eildon, and more recently from the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme.

The planned development of the Snowy project is due to be completed in 1974 and, as there is limited scope for further hydro development in Victoria and at Snowy, except perhaps for pumped storage type schemes, it will be necessary to consider installing thermal plant to meet this section of the demand.

So the discovery of natural gas had come at an opportune time.

Enter Newport Power Station

With an existing briquette fired power station at Newport reaching the end of its economic life, and abundant natural gas now available, the State Electricity Commission had a plan – build a 1,000 MW gas fired power station on the site.

SECV artists impression – NAA item ID 8295158

It would be flexible enough to follow the load curve compared to the brown coal fired power stations, and adaptable from peaking to near base loads. Authorisation was given in 1971, with completion expected by 1976 for the first 500 MW unit, and 1978 for the second.

SECV artists impression – NAA item ID 8295157

But the usage of ‘premium’ natural gas to generate electricity was attacked by many, including Val Doube, Member for Albert Park.

Many examples show that human beings are inclined to rush into situations and then find that they must take the most expensive steps to repair the damage they have done. In Victoria we have a new toy – natural gas – and we propose to burn it in the most wasteful fashion to manufacture electricity.

In this power station it is proposed to burn more of this precious resource than is burnt in all the factories and homes in Victoria. This is a most wasteful proposition. It is not as though the sources of energy available to use were inexhaustible. Many countries are confronted with severe problems because of the obvious limits to the energy available from fossil fuel. Even though we appear to be rich in resources for the moment, it is our duty to use them carefully.

If natural gas were properly used, there would be a much better return from its energy. Only 38 per cent of the potential energy of natural gas will be available as electricity from Newport. Much of the rest will be wasted in that it will be used for cooling and similar purposes.

If natural gas were used directly in homes and factories, 70 per cent of its potential energy could be used. There is a potential shortage of fuel in the world, and the energy and heat potential of natural gas should be used in the way I have suggested. That would extend the life of the existing wells.

But the State Electricity Commission had a bigger problem with their Newport project – an emerging green movement opposed the construction of a power station in the middle of Melbourne, and sympathetic trade unions placed green bans on the project, stopping construction.

To resolve the deadlock, in 1973 state government tasked the newly-formed Environmental Protection Authority to conduct a public inquiry into the project. After a number of public hearings and appeals, in April 1977 the Newport Review Panel submitted a final report, concluded that only one of the two 500 MW units should be built.

Work on the power station was restarted by union workers, despite the work bans still being in place, with the project completed by mid-1980, and delivering power later that year.

Emergency generation at Jeeralang

With construction of Newport Power Station delayed, the supply of electricity to the growing state of Victoria was placed at risk. In mid-1977 the State Electricity Commission recommended the installation of 200 MW of gas turbines in the Latrobe Valley, with a new power station able to be imported and assembled within two or three years, despite their smaller capacity and higher fuel costs meaning they were best suited to supplying short duration peaks.

The four Siemens Industries V93.1 open-cycle gas turbines entered service in early 1979 at a cost of around $30 million.

But with power shortfalls still forecast, in 1977 the State Government convened the Emergency Gas Turbines Inquiry, which recommended a second batch of gas turbines should be installed at the Latrobe Valley site, but equipped with water injection equipment to reduce emissions. This block of three Alstom Atlantique MS-9001 open-cycle gas turbines went into service in 1980 at a cost of around $35m

Today known as the Jeeralang Power Station, the gas turbine are used as a peaking facility during periods of peak demand, as well as a black start facility to restore power to the grid in the event of major system failure.

Towards a coherent policy

In 1985 the Victorian Government released a policy statement titled ‘Victoria’s Energy: Strategy and Policy options’, which touched on the use of natural gas for electricity generation.

Victorian Government policy at present prohibits the use of natural gas for electricity generation in the new power stations. However, SECV has proposed that new gas turbine generators be considered for use as a contingency measure if electricity load growth is higher than planned for.

In considering the mid-term options for power development, the Government has re-affirmed its desire to avoid planning on the basis of commitment to new gas fired power stations. The use of additional gas turbines beyond those already installed at Jeeralang should also be unnecessary if present efforts to more flexibly program construction have the desired result. Should an unexpected surge in demand or delay in construction emerge, then the Government would re-examine this issue.

Major expansion of the usage of natural gas would have significant impacts on the lifetime of gas supply developed from reserves in Bass Strait. While it is not possible to quantify impacts, one general effect will be to provide encouragement for gas explorers to discover and prove up further deposits of natural gas. The Victorian region. generally acknowledged to have a good prospectivity for gas, but most exploration at present is concentrated on oil because the existing gas market is well supplied by known gas fields.

A position reinstated by the Natural Resources and Environment Committee in their April 1988 report “Electricity Supply and Demand Beyond the Mid-1990’s“, who examined the use of natural gas for power generation in great detail.

The supply options originally proposed by SECV for consideration by this Inquiry for the period beyond the mid-1990’s did not include gas fired developments. Present Victorian Government policy prohibits the use of natural gas for electricity generation in new power stations. The Committee wrote to SECV requesting that information on gas fired options be included in SECV evidence.

Additional gas fired generating plants could be of the open cycle combustion turbine type (like Jeeralang), or combined cycle plants where the high temperature exhaust gases from one or more combustion turbines are fed into a heat recovery boiler driving an additional steam turbo-generator. SECV evidence indicated that gas fired steam cycle plant (like Newport D) has neither cost nor efficiency advantages over the newer technology combined cycle plant, so this plant configuration was not pursued further.

The location of gas fired plant is more flexible than that of brown coal fired power stations which are normally sited close to their associated mines because of costs and difficulties associated with long distance transport of brown coal. Suitable gas turbine sites would normally be located in the vicinity of an existing gas pipeline and high voltage transmission line.

The capital cost per unit of output capacity of open cycle gas turbine driven generating plant is substantially lower than that of other forms of thermal power generating plant. SECV’s estimates indicate that the capital cost per unit of power generated for gas turbines would be about half that of a Loy Yang B or Oaklands unit and less than a third of the cost of any other brown coal fired unit.

When used for peak and intermediate load duty, gas turbines are more economic than the higher capital cost coal fired plants. The addition of further gas fired plant to the Victorian system to meet future load growth, could therefore be economically desirable, subject to the future cost and availability of natural gas.

Nevertheless, it could be expected that some reductions in the cost of electricity supply would be available from 100-200 MW of additional gas fired capacity, even at significantly higher gas prices. This possibility deserves further attention from SECV, whose evidence has concentrated on large (500 MW) blocks of gas fired plant.

A spanner in the works

In the 1980s the focus switched to the Loy Yang complex – the biggest project the State Electricity Commission ever attempted, with a total of 4,000 MW in brown coal fired generating capacity spread over four 500 MW stages, at a cost of around $5.5 billion in 1984 prices.

The first power at Loy Yang ‘A’ was generated in 1984, with the last of the units being brought online by 1988. By this time the electricity industry in Victoria had changed, and work on the next stage at Loy Yang ‘B’ stalled for a number of years, as a new focus on energy conservation reduced overall electricity demand, and questions were asked in government as to the cost efficiency of the SECV and brown coal power generation in general.

It took until 1993 for this situation to be finally resolved, when 1000 MW of the Loy Yang ‘B’ plant was cancelled, in the midst of the Kennett Government breakup of the State Electricity Commission into an array of distribution, retail, power generation and transmission companies.

David White, Shadow Minister for Energy and Minerals, attacked the disaggregation of the generating system in a 1995 debate.

Former SEC executives have said that the lack of overall planning for the expansion of the generation system would leave consumers at the mercy of the private entrepreneurs, who may or may not respond to pricing signals in the marketplace. They were referring to the major issue of security of supply. Under the government’s proposal the brown-coal fired power stations, the hydro stations and the gas-fired power stations will be broken up and sold at some stage in the future.

At some stage in the future we will need further generating capacity. For 75 years planning for the emergence of the new generation capacity has rested with the SEC. It has planned and submitted to various parliamentary committees its proposals for the expansion of the generation system. In the past the SEC submitted plans for consideration by the former Public Works Committee prior to environmental effects statements and prior to the establishment of a new brown-coal fired station.

Landing some prophetic words.

The retired SEC engineers are saying that there is no provision under the state-owned enterprise model for the emergence of the prospective brown-coal fired power station but there might be the prospect of the emergence of a natural-gas fired power station similar to Jeeralang and Newport if BHP or CRA or a similar company is so moved.

However, there is nothing intrinsic or evident in the government’s proposals to suggest how a new brown-coal fired power station might emerge, given that the gestation period from initial planning and design through to construction, completion and operation could be a period of not less than 5 and probably up to 10 years. The government is saying that the free play of market forces will see the emergence of that investment and that prospect. At the moment there is no evidence to support that proposition.

And something that only rusted on fossil fuel proponents would say today.

At some stage in the future Hazelwood will be retired – it is not far away – and there will be a need for an additional prime brown-coal capacity.

Into the new world

In 2001 the first new power station opened in Victoria under the new structure – the 300 MW Valley Power Peaking Plant. Located next door to Loy Yang power station with six 50 MW open-cycle gas turbines, the plant is now owned by Snowy Hydro.

Google Maps

The same year the 94 MW Bairnsdale Power Station opened, with two GE LM6000PD open-cycle gas turbines owned by Alinta Energy.

AGL opened the 160 MW Somerton Power Station in 2003, with four 37.5MW GT-1 Frame 6B open-cycle gas turbines.

Snowy Hydro opened the 320 MW Laverton North Power Station in 2006, equipped with two Siemens V94.2 open-cycle gas turbines.

Origin Energy opened the 556 MW Mortlake Power Station in 2012, featuring two Siemens SGTS 4000F open-cycle gas turbines.

Origin Energy photo

And the what-ifs

In 2008 Santos proposed a 1500 MW combined-cycle gas turbine power station at Shaw River, north of Port Fairy, but cancelled the project in 2010 following the cancellation of Australia’s emissions trading scheme.

AGL proposal for a 500-600 MW open-cycle gas turbine peaking power station at Tarrone in Western Victoria was approved in 2012, but has been paused due to a lack of certainty in the electricity market.

And finally, in 2019 APA Group had their 220 MW gas turbine plant at Dandenong underwritten by the Federal Government’s Underwriting New Generation Investments (UNGI) program. Stage 1 comprises 12 fast start gas-fuelled reciprocating engines, with stage 2 proposing an additional six generating units.

Sources

• HR Nicholls Society – The Newport Power Station: A History of Conflict (Jack Johnson, OBE)
• Natural Resources and Environment Committee – Electricity Supply and Demand Beyond the Mid-1990’s: part 1, part 2
• SECV annual report – 1972
• SECV annual report – 1977
• SECV annual report – 1978
• SECV annual report – 1979
• SECV – Report on Proposed Extension to the State Generating System – Yallourn W Power Station units 3 and 4
• SECV – Report on Proposed Extension to the State Generating System – Loy Yang Project

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post A history of gas fired power generation in Victoria appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Photo by Webaware, via Wikimedia Commons

The story starts with the construction of Liddell Power Station in the Hunter Valley by the Electricity Commission of New South Wales (Elcom). The first of four 500 megawatt generators was completed in 1971, followed by two more in 1972, and the fourth in 1973. The complex was the first major power station in New South Wales to be built inland, and at the time of its completion was the most powerful generating station in Australia.

However a few years later all was not well at Elcom – maintenance on the generating system was being deferred, and the massive scale of new power stations left the system without reserve capacity should any of the units go off line.

This came to a head when in March 1981, when a stator winding fault at Liddell took one of the units out of service. Initially the Snowy Mountain Scheme was used to supply peak electricity load, but an ongoing drought had reduced the amount of water available, which led to the introduction of power restrictions in late June.

In November 1981 the situation worsened, when two more generators at Liddell suffered identical stator winding faults, with further power restrictions imposed for twenty days in December 1981, and twenty-six days in March-April 1982.

Canberra Times – 1 April 1982

Leaving both industry and households in the dark.

In one day of power rationing to industry it was estimated that 253,000 workers were stood down after 7,000 factories closed at a cost of $25 million to NSW industry.

Householders were restricted to half the normal lights on in a house, no air-conditioning, no radiators and, despite possible health risks, only two hours a day for filtering swimming pools.

To fill the gap, 300 MW of gas turbine generators was hurriedly acquired.

Twelve 25MW gas turbines were purchased by the Electricity Commission of New South Wales in 1982 to assist in meeting demand during the electrical energy crisis in that year resulting from the failure of alternator windings in three generating units at Liddell Power Station.

The units were connected to the State network in April, May and June, 1982. Total capital cost was $89 million. Two units are located at Bunnerong, two at Port Kembla, four at Eraring and four at Koolkhan near Grafton.

All gas turbines were used during the energy crisis in the period April to September, 1982. Operating times totalled approximately 5,000 unit hours, 85 per cent of the energy being generated using natural gas at Bunnerong and Port Kembla.

That were expensive to run.

For statistical and costing purposes a fuel consumption of 8.3 tonnes of distillate per hour is an average value recorded for each gas turbine when operating at full load.

The gas turbines at Bunnerong and Port Kembla use natural gas as fuel and for these units the gas consumption is 15.0 MJ/GWh.

In 1982 the cost of distillate was $267 to $3 10 per tonne. These values have been used to calculate a distillate fuel cost of $88 per MWh.

Under the current gas contract, fuel cost when burning natural gas is $84 per MWh for units at Bunnerong and Port Kembla.

The cost of running a gas turbine at full load (25 MW) for one hour is:
(a) natural gas fuel – $2,100 on current gas price.
(b) distillate fuel – $2,200 on 1982 fuel price. $3,875 on 1986 replacement fuel price.

With power restrictions finally averted by the commissioning of the first 660 MW unit at the coal fired Eraring Power Station in March 1982.

Photo by Nick Pitsas, CSIRO, via Wikimedia Commons

So what happened to the gas turbines?

After the power crisis had ended, some in parliament thought they should be sold off.

In 1982, in a panic move after the blackouts of 1981 the commission, at the Government’s insistence, purchased twelve gas turbines at a cost of $130 million. These turbines are not in use, have never been used and have no use, because they are too costly to operate.

The turbines should be sold to recoup the $130 million paid for them. The excuse that the turbines are to be used for a black start is not acceptable. It is absolute nonsense to give that excuse, and the Minister well knows it.

But Elcom did make use of the gas turbines in times of peak demand.

During autumn 1983 the natural gas turbines at Bunnerong and Port Kembla were operated due to reduced water storages in the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme as a result of a prolonged drought. Operating hours totalled approximately 1,700 unit hours.

In addition, gas turbines have been operated for brief periods, as follows:

• Koolkhan to assist with a local supply problem in April 1984.
• Bunnerong and Port Kembla to assist the State Electricity Commission of Victoria following plant failures in that State.
• At all locations on one day in March 1983, as a result of loss of thermal generating plant due to switchboard flashovers.
• At all locations for three days during February 1986, during the coalminers’ strike.
• For one hour each month as a test on performance.

The units installed at Koolkhan have allowed deferment of some 330 kV transmission line projects in the area north of Armidale, with resultant cost savings of about $2 million.

Capable of generating at full load within 12 minutes of start-up, the turbines were seen as ideal emergency backup despite average annual maintenance costs of $3,200 per unit, which saw Elcom redeploy them to other parts of the network.

A review has been undertaken of the need to retain the gas turbine units.

Present forecasts of load growth indicate that there could be a need for the installation of additional combustion turbines towards the middle of the 1990’s and at this stage it has been decided not to sell any of the gas turbine units.

The benefit to the Commission of relocating gas turbines on the State grid would far outweigh the return obtained by selling this plant.

Action is in hand to relocate the Bunnerong units to the Upper Hunter district to provide “black start” capability for Liddell and Bayswater Power Stations, and it is proposed to relocate the Port Kembla units to Broken Hill as emergency standby supply in case of any failure in the transmission system.

The two units at Bunnerong Power Station were removed by 1984, and recommissioned between the Bayswater and Liddell Power Stations in 1988. They passed to Macquarie Generation as part of the breakup of Elcom, and remain in service today as the ‘Hunter Valley Gas Turbines’ owned by AGL Macquarie.

Google Earth 2020

The two units at Port Kembla were also relocated as planned to Broken Hill, being recommissioned in 1989.

Today it serves as a backup electricity supply to the isolated city of Broken Hill, should the single 220 kV transmission line be down for maintenance or an unplanned outage.

Google Earth 2020

Four gas turbines at Koolkhan fill a similar role, supplying to the far north coast of NSW should there be an outage on the 330 kV line from down south. Around 2000 Elcom successor Pacific Power decommissioned the gas turbines, which were sold off and exported to the USA. The site now lays empty.

Google Earth 2004

And finally, the four turbines at Eraring. They were passed to Elcom successor Eraring Energy, which operated two units as the ‘Northern Gas Turbines’ until they were decommissioned in 2001.

The site is now empty, but Eraring Energy did commissioned a 40 MW rated ‘Emergency Black Start Gas Turbine‘ in 2007 to meet the same role.

Google Earth 2020

Footnote: modern day equivalents

During the 2017-18 summer the Australian Energy Market Operator hired 105 diesel-powered generators that were setup at the Energy Brix Power Station site in Morwell, to supply up to 110 MW of electricity to Victoria in an emergency. They were never used, and did not return.

Aggreko Australia photo

In 2017 the South Australian government did something similar, purchasing nine new aero-derivative turbines to supply up to 276 MW of electricity to the state. After laying idle during the 2017-18 summer, they saw first use in January 2019, only be be sold to the private sector later that year.

South Australian government photo

Footnote: how did I get here?

The genesis of this post was a simple train photo, captioned “8119 and 8131 unloading at Eraring Power Station Coal Loop. 29 January 1994“.

To which someone replied:

Four 25mw diesel turbines just right of centre. I worked on some electrical modifications to these in about 1981.

And so I went this rabbit hole.

Sources

• Electricity Commission Gas Turbines Legislative Council Questions on Notice (1 February 1987)
• N.S.W. Power and the on/off Resources Boom Jim Falk and Graham Larcombe, Journal of Australian Political Economy (1983)
• Development of a Comprehensive Decision Making Framework for Power Projects in New South Wales Ayse Topal (2014)
• Inquiry concerning alleged inadequate maintenance procedures by the Electricity Commission at Liddell Power Station New South Wales Ombudsman (1983)
• The Electricity Commission of New South Wales and its place in the rise of centralised coordination of bulk electricity generation and transmission 1888 – 2003 Kenneth David Thornton (2015)
• Lifting power rationing does little to relieve the gloom Canberra Times (1 April 1982)

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Backup generators and the 1982 New South Wales power crisis appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

So what am I even on about?

ABC News looked into the topic of grid stability back in 2017.

Power grids are complex machines, dependent on the laws of physics. The national grid is designed to operate at a consistent frequency of 50 Hertz, or 50 cycles a second.

Traditional coal, gas and hydro power stations are considered “synchronous” because they use turbines or spinning wheels to produce electricity. Those spinning parts need to stay close to 50Hz to help keep the grid in synch.

But most of Australia’s installed wind and solar systems are not considered to be. That’s because they use inverters to connect to the grid, rather than spinning wheels.

If too much power is fed in relative to demand, the frequency will increase. If demand outstrips supply, the frequency drops. Regulators rely on a suite of technologies to help keep the grid frequency close to 50Hz.

Synchronous condensers are one of the technologies used to maintain the frequency of the grid, with Energy Networks Australia explaining the technical details in their piece, The age of the syncons.

What is system strength?

System strength is important as it relates to the ability of the power system to withstand changes in supply or demand while maintaining stable voltage levels.

When system strength is low, generators may not be able to remain connected to the grid, control of the power system voltage level becomes more difficult and protection systems (which control and maintain the safe operation of the network) may not operate correctly. This can result in supply interruptions to customers.

System strength is typically provided by synchronous generation such as coal or gas-fired generation or pumped hydro.

What are synchronous condensers?

Synchronous condensers are an old technology, commonly used as far back as the 1950s to stabilise power systems.

They are large machines which spin freely and can absorb or produce reactive (Alternating Current – AC) power in order to stabilise and strengthen a power system.

Synchronous condensers help when there are changes in load as they increase network inertia. The kinetic energy stored in a synchronous condenser contributes to the total inertia of the power system and is beneficial from a frequency control perspective.

What is inertia?

Inertia in the energy system refers to the continuous momentum of energy typically provided by the large spinning turbines of synchronous generators like large coal-or gas-fired power stations. This type of generation helps withstand changes in generation output and load levels to keep the system stable.

The retirement of synchronous power plants and more renewable generation coming into the energy system means there is less inertia available, so flexibility or stability must be found elsewhere in the system to back it up.

And their usage in Victoria

Until the 1990s the electricity network in Victoria was managed by a single government entity – the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

Brown coal from the Latrobe Valley was their fuel of choice.

But despite all of the old fashioned spinning metal in their power stations, in 1966 the SECV installed a 750 rpm +125 -75 MVar at 22 kV capacity synchronous condenser at the Templestowe Terminal Station in north-east Melbourne.

Photo by Mriya, via Wikimedia Commons

A few years later a second synchronous condenser was installed at the Fishermans Bend Terminal Station, south of the Melbourne CBD.

And in 1971 a third unit at Brooklyn Terminal Station, in Melbourne’s west, with a salient pole design rotating at 750 rpm, with a rating of +110 -64 MVar at 14.5 kV, and a short time overload rating of 140 MvAr (10 min).

Following privatisation the reliability of the synchronous condensers declined, with availability falling below the 91% target in 2003. As a result network operator SP AusNet launched a refurbishment program to address degradation of stator winding sidewall and rotor pole insulation, but by 2013 only the unit was Brooklyn had been upgraded.

As a result reliability declined, with the end coming in October 2016.

AusNet Services and AEMO agreed in October 2016 that it was prudent to retire, rather than replace, these three synchronous condensers on the transmission network. These assets were in extremely poor condition and studies confirmed that their replacement would not have provided a net market benefit.

Since the agreement to retire the synchronous condensers, all three units have failed due to their poor condition. Given that the synchronous condensers were due to be retired by 1 April 2017, AusNet Services and AEMO agreed that it was not efficient to repair and return the synchronous condensers into service.

With SP AusNet realising an additional $7.0 million depreciation charge in their 2017 annual report.

Everything old is new again

In 2017 synchronous condensers hit the news, when AGL flagged them as one part of their transition away from coal fired power.

Liddell Power Station is a 2000 MW black coal fired thermal power station, commissioned between 1971-73. The site also includes associated infrastructure required for power generation, including water, coal and transmission plant.

In April 2015 AGL released a revised Greenhouse Gas Policy. The Policy outlined AGL’s commitment to the decarbonisation of our electricity generation portfolio, confirming closure dates for our coal-fired power stations. The announced closure date for Liddell is the end of 2022.

AGL believes that the installed capacity and energy output from Liddell is best replaced with lower emissions and more reliable generation, with a longer lifespan.

As part of our NSW Generation Plan we are investigating the use of one Liddell generating unit as a synchronous condenser.

As part of new solar farm proposals.

Many other wind and solar projects in Victoria and elsewhere are having to go back to the drawing board because of connection requirements the developers either ignored, or didn’t know about.

The issue is most acute in western Victoria, but is also being felt in northern Queensland and south-west NSW.

Many new projects are being told that they face significant curtailment without either adding battery storage or old-style machinery known as synchronous condensers to deal with system strength issues.

Both options are causing headaches for developers, because either way they are trashing their financial models, and could cause extensive delays to projects that many expected would begin construction anytime soon.

As a high cost fix for system flaws.

RenewEconomy has been told that a synchronous condenser could add $8-$10 million in costs to projects already tight on margins. A group of solar farms in north-west Victoria have been told, RenewEconomy understands, that their additional costs could total $60 million.

And to reinforce the South Australian power grid.

As more energy sources such as wind and solar are connected to the grid, traditional power generation sources such as gas-fired units, operate less often. This has created a shortfall in system strength which was declared by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on 13 October 2017 and a shortfall in inertia which was declared on 24 December 2018.

A secure power system needs adequate levels of system strength and inertia, which to date have been provided by traditional synchronous generators.

Following an analysis of these options, the installation of synchronous condensers on the network was determined to be the most efficient and least cost option to ensure there is adequate system strength and inertia.

On 20 August 2019, the AER approved $166 million to fund the capital cost of delivering the synchronous condenser solution.

The first two of four planned synchronous condensers will be installed at the Davenport substation in mid-2020 and the second two will be installed at the Robertstown substation by the end of 2020. They will be commissioned by early 2021.

How things change in the course of two years!

Update for 2022

In July 2022 a 60Mvr synchronous condenser supplied by GE has been switched on at the Murra Warra wind farm in the West Murray region, enabling the project to increase export capacity to 150MW, before moving towards full capacity of 209MW.

The synchronous condenser was required as part of the since abandoned “do no harm” rules that required new generation projects to address system strength issues in the transmission network. This is now the responsibility of network operators.

Footnote: alternate sources of voltage support

Static VAR compensators are another way of stabilising the electricity grid.

A static VAR compensator (SVC) is a set of electrical devices for providing fast-acting reactive power on high-voltage electricity transmission networks. SVCs are part of the Flexible AC transmission system device family, regulating voltage, power factor, harmonics and stabilising the system.

A static VAR compensator has no significant moving parts (other than internal switchgear). Prior to the invention of the SVC, power factor compensation was the preserve of large rotating machines such as synchronous condensers or switched capacitor banks.

Four SVC units are installed on the SP AusNet Network in Victoria – two +100 -60 MVar capacity units at Rowville Terminal Station, and one +50 -25 MVar unit at each of Kerang Terminal Station and Horsham Terminal Station.

Installed by the SECV during the mid-1980s and with a technical life of between 40 and 60 years, the control systems are now obsolete technology unsupported by the manufacturer, so an upgrade program is underway to replace them with modern equipment.

Footnote: and something really fruity

Down at Wonthaggi is a real power hog – the Victorian Desalination Plant.

It is supplied with electricity by a 88 kilometre long twin circuit 220 kV AC underground transmission line – the longest of its type in the world.

With the underground cable run requiring something odd at the halfway point – a ‘reactive compensation station’.

The yard full of high voltage switchgear contains three 52 MVAr oil-filled shunt reactors to compensate for the capacitance of the underground cables.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post A history of synchronous condensers in Victoria appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Build it up

Work on the $48.5 million Kororoit Creek Road duplication project in Altona North had just kicked off.

Including the replacement of the Werribee line level crossing with a road overbridge.

Work on the project was completed in December 2011.

Gauge conversion of the Melbourne-Albury railway was still ongoing.

Buses replacing V/Line trains north of Seymour.

V/Line services eventually returned in 2011, but trains are frequently cancelled – the years since filled with attempts to fix the already deteriorating track.

Toot toot!

I headed up to Maryborough on a special train operated by the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre.

Travelling in style.

Sitting in the siding alongside was an equally elderly locomotive hauling an El Zorro grain train.

El Zorro having had the same train derailed at Tottenham Yard a few days earlier.

Thanks to the deteriorating track that passes for the Victorian freight network.

El Zorro went into administration in 2013, but the tracks they used are no better today – the Murray Basin Rail project intended to upgrade them ran out of money.

Storms

In March 2010 a massive storm hit Melbourne, with 10-centimetre hailstones hitting Southern Cross Station.

Photo by PageantUpdater talk • contribs ., via Wikimedia Commons

Tearing the plastic ‘bubbles’ in the roof.

Opening the station to the elements.

Flooding the concourse.

And the escalators.

Repairs were estimated to cost $5 million, with 43 of the 60 air pillows needing replacement, work commencing in April 2010 and lasting 12 to 14 weeks.

Things that are gone

Remember mX, the free newspaper that littered Melbourne trains and stations each afternoon?

The rise of smartphones saw readership drop, with the final edition published on 12 June 2015.

Myki was still new and shiny, with promotions across the rail network to get passengers to make the switch from Metcard.

Myki eventually took over from Metcard in December 2012.

The transition from Connex to Metro Trains as the operator of Melbourne trains was still ongoing, with trains slowly receiving the new branding.

But a decade later, the Metro livery surprisingly survives.

In 2010 bright yellow ‘bumbleebee’ trams were still making their way around Melbourne.

But by 2014 the decals were torn and faded, so the trams were repainted into the standard PTV livery.

The next train displays in the City Loop were also coloured by destination.

There were replaced by plain looking white on black LCD screens in 2011, but the use of colours was brought back in 2018, but only at Flinders Street Station.

V/Line trains to Geelong used to run via the Werribee line.

Since 2015 they have travelled via the new Melbourne suburbs of Wyndham Vale and Tarneit, follow the completion of Regional Rail Link.

Passing through what were once empty paddocks.

This farm west of Werribee is now Alwood Estate and King’s Leigh Estate.

I also ended up down in Gippsland at the Energy Brix briquette factory.

The ageing factory and associated brown coal fired power station closed in 2014, with demolition now underway, despite being heritage listed.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Photos from ten years ago: March 2010 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Roadtrip!

I started my journey in the south-west down at Camperdown, where I caught up with this short train made up of just two empty flat wagons.

The train was on the way back to Melbourne, having been abandoned in Warrnambool after the end of El Zorro’s ill fated attempt at running the Warrnambool freight service.

I then headed east, pausing at the dive that was Westall station. With only two platforms, the only access was via a pedestrian crossing at the down end, and the timber station buildings were missing thanks to an arson attack.

Today the station is a grand monolith, completed in 2011 at a cost of $151 million – with a third platform for terminating trains, and an overhead footbridge providing access over the tracks.

I also paused at a red brick traction substation and overhead wires on the main Gippsland line at Bunyip.

Constructed in the 1950s as part of the electrification of the main Gippsland railway line, as part of the first main line electrification project in Australia. Electrification was cut back to Warragul in 1987, to Bunyip in 1998, before ceasing entirely beyond Pakenham in 2001.

The wires and substation were removed in 2004, except for the substation and a short section of overhead at Bunyip, which are covered by a heritage listing.

I then headed for the South Gippsland Railway, where heritage trains once operated along the former Leongatha railway.

I rode the train to the end of the line at Nyora.

Then back to the other end at Leongatha.

The railway disbanded in 2016, due to a lack of volunteer labour.

I also headed into the Latrobe Valley on the search for freight trains.

My first find at the Australian Paper mill in Morwell, where containers were being loaded for the trip to the Port of Melbourne.

It still runs today, taking hundreds of trucks off the Monash Freeway each day.

I also headed further east to Bairnsdale, where I found a train being loaded with logs.

Then followed it back to Melbourne, where I caught it at Stratford, crossing the timber bridge over the Avon River.

The train transported cut logs to the Midway woodchip mill at Geelong, where they would be sent to the paper mills of Japan. The native forests of Gippsland are still being logged today, but the train no longer runs – the timber is transported by road instead.

As for the timber bridge over the Avon River, it is still there today, but the state government is funding a $95 million replacement, which will allow the 10 km/h speed limit to be raised.

A ‘powerful’ diversion

While in the Latrobe Valley I also toured Victoria’s aging fleet of brown coal fired power stations.

I started at the PowerWorks visitors centre in Morwell, where a retired coal dredger is preserved.

As well as a narrow gauge electric locomotive once used in the Yallourn open cut mine.

Then I went past Energy Brix briquette plant next door.

Which closed in 2014.

Then across to the Hazelwood power station.

Back then the ‘West Field’ expansion of the open cut brown coal mine was underway, with a number of roads being closed to make room for the future hole.

But that effort didn’t really pay off – the aging dinosaur of a power station closed in 2017.

Still hanging on is the Yallourn W power station, completed in 1973-1982.

And the Loy Yang power station and and open cut mine.

In addition to the slightly cleaner gas turbine plant at Jeeralang.

And an interesting piece of technology – the Loy Yang Static Inverter Plant, the Victorian end of the Basslink high voltage DC undersea transmission line that connects Tasmania to the national electricity grid.

Headed north

I then headed back on the trail of trains, heading over to Seymour where work had started on the gauge conversion of the railway north to Albury.

I also followed a special train operated by the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre to Tocumwal.

With Santa saving from the rear platform.

Captured a V/Line train passing the since removed mechanical signals at Kilmore East.

Passed the crummy facilities that passed for a station at Donnybrook.

And saw gravel being loaded into a train, ready to be transported by rail to concrete plants across Melbourne, instead of a fleet of trucks.

I then headed west, to photograph a V/Line train at Ballan station.

It won’t look like the above very longer – a second platform and overhead footbridge is now under construction.

I also stopped in at Deer Park.

Work on the Deer Park Bypass was underway, making it quicker for people in Melbourne’s west to drive towards the city, as well as for trucks transporting interstate freight.

But no investment was coming for Deer Park station. Once part of the main route between Melbourne and Adelaide, bidirectional signalling was provided so that faster moving passenger trains could overtake the far heavier and slower freight trains.

But only a gravel platform was provided for passengers, visited by a V/Line train every two hours, if that.

It took until 2015 for the poor level of service to be fixed, following the completion of Regional Rail Link.

But unfortunately the cost cutting to the project saw the bidirectional signalling removed, resulting in major delays to V/Line services every time a train breaks down in the section.

Two steps forward, another back?

Another place on the fringe of Melbourne’s urban sprawl is Diggers Rest, which back then was only served by V/Line services.

As was Sunbury, which saw a number of V/Line shortworkings terminate there in order to pump up the frequency to something worth using.

The $270 million electrification of the Sunbury line was completed in 2012, seeing suburban trains extended to the town, but but many of the locals weren’t happy – they preferred waiting around on a cold platform then ride a comfortable V/Line train.

And back to Geelong

Finally, we end close to home at Geelong.

I visited the remains of the Fyansford cement works.

The silos were still in place.

As were the railway sidings once used to despatch the finished product.

But the cement kilns at the base of the hill were long gone.

Today the silos are still there, but the tracks were removed in 2011, and the rest of the site redeveloped as houses.

I found a VLocity train bound for Marshall station, heading through an unprotected level crossing.

Rather than upgrade the crossing, in 2008 it was closed to vehicle traffic.

At North Shore I captured The Overland westbound for Adelaide.

The newly refurbished train had entered service in mid-2008 in an attempt to reinvigorate the dying service, but it doesn’t do much good – it was almost cancelled in 2015 following an impasse over funding, with it now set to end in 2018 after SA government declined to extended the arrangement further.

The rollout of ‘Parkiteer’ bike cages at railway stations had started, with South Geelong receiving one.

Platform extension works were also underway.

In September 2008 then Minister for Public Transport, Lynne Kosky, announced that longer trains would be deployed to the Geelong line, requiring platform extension works.

These trains continued to run until June 2015, when Geelong trains commenced using the new Regional Rail Link tracks and the trains were cut back to just six cars in length.

And finally after years of trying, I was finally in the right place at the right time and captured the daily V/Line overtaking move outside Geelong.

Until 2015 on the Geelong line, two V/Line services would depart Geelong each morning a few minutes apart. The first train would stop all stations, while the second train would run express to Melbourne, overtaking the slower train.

Finding this overtaking point was more art than science – even a 30 second delay to either train could move it a kilometre or so down the line, so all I could do was pick a spot lineside, and hope that I wouldn’t have to come back another day to try again.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Photos from ten years ago: December 2008 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Running south-west from Coldstream to Templestowe, via Chirnside Park, Wonga Park and Warrandyte, I was first tipped off to the existence of the transmission line by someone who lives in the area.

The path taken was quite easy to see on the Melway – the eastern end is located at tower T293 in Coldstream.

While the western end terminates at tower T342 in Templestowe.

Eventually I paid a visit in person, and the dead-end nature of the transmission line was easy to see.

The northern end at Coldstream is located alongside two 500 kV transmission lines.

While the Templestowe end is located among the transmission lines that serve the Templestowe Terminal Station.

But unfortunately I was no closer to finding the reasons for the lines laying abandoned, until my recent post on transmission line crossovers. What started with an exploration of power lines in Sydney, expanded to Rowville Terminal Station in Melbourne, and then down a rabbit hole of State Electricity Commission of Victoria reports.

I eventually landed on a 1983 report on transmission lines serving Melbourne by the Natural Resources and Environment Committee. The purpose of the report was as follows:

This report specifically addresses the SEC’s proposal for a 500 000 volt transmission line from Coldstream to South Morang and in particular:

(i) The need for reinforcing transmission to the 500 000 volt terminal stations in the outer metropolitan area;
(ii) The feasible route to be subjected to detailed examination of environmental issues; and
(iii) The recommended process for assessment and approval of the route in this instance.

The report detailed the current state of the high voltage transmission lines linking the power stations of the Latrobe Valley to Melbourne.

The existing transmission system from the Latrobe Valley to the Melbourne metropolitan areas consists of three 220 kV double circuit lines and three 500 kV single circuit lines.

Two of the 500 kV lines were established in the late 1960s on a northern easement in conjunction with the Hazelwood Power Station and supply the western metropolitan area from the Keilor Terminal Station (KTS). The lines were routed via Coldstream and South Morang with one line being on a direct Coldstream to South Morang easement and the other routed via Templestowe to provide for later development of supply for the north-eastern metropolitan area. The easements from Coldstream to South Morang were each approved with capacity for a second circuit, thereby providing for the four incoming 500 kV lines to South Morang.

The third 500 kV line was established in late 1982 on a southern easement via Cranbourne, Narre Warren and Templestowe, in conjunction with commercial service of the completed Yallourn W Power Station and in preparation for service of the initial Loy Yang A units. The planning permission for the section of this line between Hazelwood and Cranbourne included easement provision for two further 500 kV lines. The section between Cranbourne and South Morang was established on an existing easement.

As well as how the SEC planned to add a fourth 500 kV transmission line into the system:

The further 500 kV line from Hazelwood to Melbourne is planned to be established on the southern 500 kV easement adjacent to the existing 500 kV line from Hazelwood to Templestowe. The section of the line between Narre Warren and Templestowe has already been constructed and the Rowville to Templestowe part of this section is temporarily in service at 220 kV.

And the interesting bit – the abandonment of the transmission line between Coldstream and Templestowe.

To achieve connection of the fourth 500 kV transmission line into South Morang, the SEC propose to take the existing second 500 kV line (the southern circuit on the northern easement) directly into South Morang from Coldstream, so as to free up the section between Templestowe and South Morang for inclusion as part of the fourth 500 000 volt line.

The short section on the northern easement between Templestowe and Coldstream would then be left out-of-service until the future establishment of new 500 kV switching stations at Templestowe and Coldstream.

If that wasn’t clear as mud, this diagram depicted the current state, as well as three proposals for adding a fourth 500 kV circuit between Hazelwood and Melbourne.

Abandoning a section of high voltage transmission line sounds like an odd thing to do – something which Mr. R.F. English, resident of the Bend of Islands Environmental Living Zone immediately adjacent to the proposed transmission line easement, pointed out in his submission to the Natural Resources and Environment Committee.

The decision to take the Coldstream to Templestowe 500 kV line out of service until at least the fifth 500 kV line is constructed and required – this would probably be in at least 25 years or more.

As the Coldstream to Templestowe line is approximately 20 kilometres long, and based on $470,000 per km, this would mean a $9 million asset would remain idle and depreciating for 25 years.

This appears to me to reflect a gross planning error in the SEC’s long term plans “to scar the landscape with 500 kV power lines”.

So what ended up happening?

And you guessed it – State Electricity Commission of Victoria got their way, with the fourth 500 kV transmission line being pushed through the Bay of Islands bushland along the “LV1: second Coldstream to South Morang line” route, and the transmission line from Coldstream to Templestowe abandoned.

But will it be used in the future?

Back in the 1980s the SECV believed that a fifth 500 kV transmission line would be required by 1990 to serve the increasing energy demand of Melbourne.

But this prediction was overly optimistic – development of the massive 4,00 MW Driffield Project west of Morwell was abandoned follwing a change of government, and the Loy Yang power station petered out at 3,250 MW of the 4,400 MW capacity originally planned.

In 2009 Victorian energy network operator VENCorp dusted off the old SEC plans, in their ‘Vision 2030’ document:

Development of eastern corridor distribution

A new (fifth) 500 kV power line from the Latrobe Valley to Melbourne via the Northern easement terminating at Templestowe via Coldstream, and establishment of new 500 kV switching stations at Coldstream and Templestowe (140 km). This line would incorporate the currently unused 500 kV line between Coldstream and Templestowe.

Cost: $460 million

But with the decommissioning Hazelwood power station, no new coal fired power stations on the horizon, and the rapid growth of distributed rooftop solar and battery storage, the need for additional capacity between Melbourne and the Latrobe Valley seems redundant.

And another example

Sent in by a reader – a dead end transmission line outside the Geelong Terminal Station.

The transmission line runs north towards the Moorabool Terminal Station, but terminates a short distance to the south.

My guess – the original 220 kV circuit to Geelong was replaced by parallel 220 kV circuits on a new set of pylons, with a 220 KV circuit to Terang taking over the northern-most part of the easement.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post High voltage power lines to nowhere appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Massive pressure pipelines carry water down the hill to the power station.

Inside the water hits the turbines, which spin around and generate electricity.

Which is then stepped up in voltage by transformers outside the turbine house.

And then sent to consumers by high voltage transmission lines that cross the steep hillsides.

Tour details

Tours of the Murray 1 power station are free – more details at the Snowy Hydro website:

Murray 1 Power Station is the second largest power station in the Snowy Mountains Scheme. There are 10 turbines at Murray 1, each capable of producing enough electricity to supply over 95,000 houses.

Next to the power station is the Murray 1 Visitors Centre. This centre offers an exciting interactive experience with a wide range of displays, “hands on” models and exhibits.

There are BBQ and picnic areas by the water that are open to the public. Light refreshments are available in the Cafe.

All power stations in the Snowy Mountains Scheme are working power stations. There are special requirements for visitors who participate in Murray 1 Power Station inspections. These requirements are in the interests of your safety and security of our facilities. These include:

• Covered footwear must be worn (i.e thongs etc are not permitted in power stations).
• Cameras are not permitted.
• No backpacks or large bags are to be taken into power stations.
• We reserve the right to inspect any hand luggage carried on a tour.

The “no cameras” line must be a new rule, since I was snapping away when I visited.

Defunct tours

On the VirtualTourist website I found what looks like an old copy of the Snowy Hydro website, as it mentions tour options that no longer exist.

Guided tours:

• Murray 1 Power Station near Khancoban
• Tumut 3 Power Station near Talbingo
• Tumut 2 Power Station near Cabramurra

There is free access to the visitor’s gallery at Murray Group Control Centre near Khancoban, Guthega Power Station and Jindabyne Pumping Station daily between 8.30am and 4.00pm.

Inspections of the Guthega Power Station and Jindabyne Pumping Station may be arranged by contacting the authority’s information centre in Cooma.

Access at all times to viewing points and toilet facilities situated at various power stations, dams and other points of interest.

It is a pity those options no longer exist – Tumut 3 power station dwarfs that at Murray 1.

And Tumut 2 power station is located deep underground, with the tour taking visitors into the cavern that houses the turbines.

The lack of tours makes the visitors centre there rather redundant.

With privatisation of Snowy Hydro an on-again off-again possibility, presumably running public tours of power stations is no longer their top priority.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Tours of the Snowy Mountains Scheme appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

The oldest one belongs to the Melbourne Hydraulic Service Power Company. The company was established in 1887 by George Swinburne (namesake of Swinburne University) to supply high pressure water to buildings around the CBD to operate hydraulic lifts, and enabled the construction of Melbourne’s first multi-storey buildings.

The legislation that enabled the construction of the high pressure pipe network also allowed the Melbourne City Council to take over the system at a future date, which they did in 1925. Renamed the Hydraulic Service Power Department, in later years electric power took over the task of powering lifts, but the hydraulic system remained operating until 1967.

Another public utility provider was the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW), established by the state government in 1891 to manage Melbourne water supply and sewage systems. In the following decades their responsibilities grew to cover more of the city, the Board being given town planning responsibilities in 1949, and the power to construct and maintain metropolitan highways and bridges in 1956.

Infighting between the MMBW and local government saw the powers of the Board slowly reduced, when road responsibilities were passed to the Country Roads Board in 1974, the town planning responsibilities were passed to the Ministry for Planning and Environment in 1985. The end came in 1991 when the Board was merged with a number of smaller urban water authorities to form Melbourne Water.

Next up is the Melbourne City Council Electrical Supply Department (MCCESD), which was a Municipal Electricity Undertaking established in 1897 to supply electricity to the City of Melbourne, generated at a power station located on the corner of Spencer and Lonsdale Streets.

With the establishment of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria in 1921, the role of the MCCESD declined into a distributor and retailer of electricity to customers inside the council area, but took until the 1994 reforms of the Victoria electricity industry for the Department to disappear.

Also related to electricity was the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board, which was established by the State Government in 1919 to take over the existing private and council operated tramways in Melbourne. As well as expanding the network into the expanding suburbs, the MMTB was also responsible for the conversion of Melbourne’s cable tramways network to electric traction.

It took the passing of the Transport Act 1983 to dissolve the MMTB, when it was merged with the suburban rail operations of the Victorian Railways to form the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which was tasked with operating the public transport network of Melbourne.

A second reorganisation of Melbourne’s trams occurred 1989 when country and metropolitan operations were merged into the Public Transport Corporation, only to be again split up in 1999 as part of the privatisation of public transport by the Kennett Government.

Continuing on the privatisation theme, we find the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria, the former monopoly supplier of household gas in Victoria. It was established by the state government in 1951 to take over a number of private town gas companies in Victoria, later developing a brown coal fuelled gasification plant at Morwell, only to have to made redundant after the discovery of natural gas in Bass Strait in 1965.

In 1997 the Gas and Fuel Corporation under the Kennett Government saw the same fate as the State Electricity Commission of Victoria: split up into retail, distribution and transmission companies that were sold off, with the remaining regulatory responsibilities being placed under a State Government-owned entity.

Making a change from state level entities, we now jump to the federal government with the Postmaster-General’s Department. Created at Federation in 1901 to control all postal (and later, telecommunications) services within Australia, in 1975 it was disaggregated, with the telephone side becoming known as Telecom Australia.

Telecom Australia was renamed to Telstra in 1995, and then privatised by the Federal Government in three share issues made in 1997, 1999 and 2006.

The final and possibly least understood manhole cover is this one from the Road Traffic Authority. When most people hear ‘RTA’ they think of the New South Wales road authority that manages the bumpy concrete monstrosities they call ‘motorways’ on the north side of the Murray River, but for almost a decade, Victoria also had a government entity by that name. Our version was established under the Transport Act 1983, which if you were paying attention earlier, also shook up the public transport operators in the state of Victoria.

Tasked with accident prevention and road safety, as well as transport regulation, driver licensing and the registration of motor vehicles, the Victorian version of the RTA only existed for six years – it was merged with the Road Construction Authority in 1989 to form the Roads Corporation, which still exists today under the VicRoads trading name.

Next time you are out, how many of these manhole covers can you spot?

Further reading

• A slightly less intense look at the names of Melbourne’s manhole covers
• A good read about the Melbourne Hydraulic Service Power Company

Sources

• Melbourne Hydraulic Service Power Company history at the White Hat Guide to Melbourne
• Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works history at The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online
• Melbourne City Council Electrical Supply Department in an earlier post of mine
• Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board history at Wikipedia
• Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria history at Wikipedia
• Postmaster-General’s Department history at Wikipedia
• Road Traffic Authority overview at the Public Records Office of Victoria

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Forgotten manhole covers of Melbourne appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

First off is a photo from December 1947, showing both office and operational staff heading out of the main gate at knock off time. In the background is the original power station at Yallourn, with an array of short chimneys belching coal dust into the air, in the days when filtration devices were extremely primitive.

Fast forward 60 years, we are at the same location but the scene is very different. The power station was decommissioned in 1989 and was listed on the Victorian Heritage Register in 1994, but due to the amount of asbestos inside it was demolished between 1997 and 1999. All that remains on the site today is the concrete foundations, a gatehouse to nowhere, and the former administration building.

This 1961 photo shows the extent of the original complex at its peak (you can find the full sized version here), with the main gate being to the middle right: before demolition the power station had consisted of five separate units: ‘C’, ‘B’, ‘A’, ‘D’ and ‘E’.

Photo via Yallourn Association

As for the administration building, it was built in 1922 in the inter-war Academic Classical style, the two storey “Yallourn Production Centre” building features a portico with giant order Ionic columns, and was designed by the SECV architectural department under the direction of chief architect AR La Gersch. With privatisation of the power station the building was sold in 1996 and is now used as a pub, with the building being listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Further reading

• Former Yallourn Power Station Adminstrative Building: entry H1054 on the Victorian Heritage Register.
• Virtual Yallourn: more photos of the old Yallourn power station.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Yallourn Power Station: then and now appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.