Mount Piper Power Station is a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

powered power station with two

steam turbines A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

with a combined generating capacity of 1,400 MW of

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

. It is located near

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

, in the Central West of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and owned by

EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia. It is one of the "big three" retailers in the National Electricity Market. It generates electricity primarily using ...

, a subsidiary of

CLP Group CLP Group () and its holding company, CLP Holdings Ltd (), also known as China Light and Power Company, Limited (now CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd., ), is an electricity company in Hong Kong. Incorporated in 1901 as China Light & Power Company Syndi ...

. On 23 September 2021, it was announced that the closure of the power station is being brought forward from 2042 to 2040 at the latest. The power station employs 250 workers. In 2024,

Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian former politician who served as the Leader of the Opposition (Australia), Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party from 2 ...

said he intends, if elected, to build one of seven government-owned nuclear power plants on this site, to be operational by 2035–2037.

Construction

The first generator (Unit 2) was completed in 1992, and the second (Unit 1) in 1993. Units 3 and 4, although planned, were not built. It was the last power station built by the Electricity Commission of New South Wales (a body since abolished). Much of the design work done was undertaken in-house by the commission. In 2009 Delta Electricity (the government owned enterprise that previously owned and managed the power station as a commercial entity) unofficially re-rated the units at Mount Piper from their original 660MW to 700MW. In 2007 & early 2008 there was public talk of 'completing' the power station by using modern super-critical, dry-cooling tower, coal-fired units of up to 1000MW capacity which uses much less water from surrounding rivers. On 7 April 2010 the

New South Wales Department of Planning New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

announced that approval had been given to

Delta Electricity Delta Electricity is an electricity generation company in Australia. The company was formed by the Government of New South Wales in 1996 as part of its reform of the electricity sector in the State, which saw the breakup of the Electricity Comm ...

to 'complete' the station by installing 2000MW of new generating capacity.

Technical

Mount Piper draws its cooling water from

Lyell Dam Lyell is a surname of Scotland traced to Radulphus de Insula, 11th-century Lord of Duchal Castle. "De insula" was subsequently translated into the Old French "de l'isle" and developed into a number of variants ( eLyell; eLisle; eLyle; see below). ...

and Thomsons Creek Dam, both purpose-built for the station. Lyell Dam is located on the

Coxs River The Coxs River, a perennial river that is part of the Hawkesbury- Nepean catchment, is located in the Central Tablelands, Blue Mountains, and Macarthur regions of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The Coxs River rises in Gardi ...

away. Large pumps draw water from the dam and transfer it to a pipeline built between Thompsons Creek Dam and Mount Piper. The power station taking what water it needs and the excess flowing into Thompsons Creek Dam. When no pumps are in service the water supply to the power station is gravity fed from Thompsons Creek Dam.

Carbon Monitoring for Action The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development. History It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, director ...

estimates this power station emits 9.08 million tonnes of

greenhouse gases Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...

each year as a result of burning

. The National Pollutant Inventory provides details of other pollutant emissions, but, as at 23 November 2008, not .

Operations

References

External links

page o
Mount Piper
{{Energy in New South Wales Coal-fired power stations in New South Wales

Construction

Technical

Operations

See also

References

External links