Bluewaters Power Station was the first privately owned,

coal-fired power station A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It was built by Griffin Energy in 2009 and is the newest coal-fired power station in Australia. The site is northeast of

Collie Collies form a distinctive type of herding dogs, including many related landraces and standardized breeds. The type originated in Scotland and Northern England. Collies are medium-sized, fairly lightly-built dogs, with pointed snouts. Many type ...

. The plant consists of two 208 megawatts units, running on

sub-bituminous coal Sub-bituminous coal is a lower grade of coal that contains 35–45% carbon. The properties of this type are between those of lignite, the lowest grade of coal, and those of bituminous coal, the second-highest grade of coal. Sub-bituminous coal ...

. The boilers were constructed by IHI while the turbines and generators were supplied by Alstom. EPC contractors were Mitsui and Hitachi Plant Technologies. Griffin Coal appointed administrators KordaMentha after financial difficulty in 2009, however the power station continued to operate until its purchase by

Sumitomo Group The is a Japanese corporate group and ''keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. In ...

and Kansai Electric in 2013. , the power station "supplies about 15 per cent of the electricity used in" the South West Interconnected System, Western Australia's main power grid. In December 2022 the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Governmen ...

announced a grant to the receivers and managers of the insolvent coal mine

Griffin Coal Griffin Coal is a large coal mine near the town of Collie in Western Australia, producing about of coal annually. In September 2022 its current owner, the Griffin Coal Mining Company, a subsidiary of Lanco Infratech, entered receivership. In D ...

to enable it to continue supplying the power station over the Western Australian summer. Community consultation commenced in 2009 for a proposed expansion and the

approved it in 2010. The proposal was to add two identical units and bring the capacity of the plant to 830 megawatts. In 2018 it remained on hold, with two years remaining until they are required to re-apply for approvals. In 2020, the owners wrote "down the value of" their asset "to zero, wiping out a $1.2 billion investment in the face of an onslaught of renewable energy."

References

{{Energy in Western Australia Coal-fired power stations in Western Australia Collie, Western Australia