AGL has invested $190 million in maintenance and upgrade work at its Bayswater power station and its Loy Yang A power station and mine to improve reliability and safety.
AGL Macquarie General Manager Operations, Len McLachlan, said AGL had recently completed $70 million of work at its Bayswater power station that included the installation of a new control system on unit 1 to improve plant stability, operational flexibility and reliability.
AGL also invested about $90 million to refurbish a generation unit at Loy Yang A power station and about $30 million to upgrade the electrical systems and perform other work on the dredger in the mine.
Bayswater power station
“Work on the three other units at Bayswater will proceed during scheduled outages over the next three years,” Mr McLachlan said.
“Looking forward, we will continue to invest in this 2640MW plant with repairs to units 2 and 4 which will enable them to operate at full capacity over summer.
“In preparation for the coming season, we have also conducted our annual pre-summer review which covers issues and risks that have caused problems during previous summers and preempts possible issues.
“Our bushfire management plan is current, and coal stockpile levels and locations have been assessed to ensure Bayswater remains a safe and reliable supplier of power during this peak demand period.”
Mr McLachlan said work on the biggest project at Bayswater, the $200 million turbine efficiency upgrade, would begin next year.
“This four year project will create 100MW of extra generation capacity, which is enough to power up to 100,000 average Australian homes, without additional coal or emissions and will also create 90 jobs for the duration of each turbine replacement,” Mr McLachlan said.
Loy Yang A power station and mine
AGL Loy Yang General Manager, Nigel Browne, said, “The purpose of these projects is to ensure AGL Loy Yang remains a safe, reliable and competitive supplier to the National Electricity Market over the remaining 30 years of its life.
“These two projects have created 800 jobs for contractors and subcontractors, many of whom are from the Gippsland area and include former workers from the Hazelwood power station, which is additional to AGL Loy Yang staff who are involved in these projects.
“The local community benefits from these projects in other ways because a significant amount of money is raised for local charities when safety targets are met. A total of $35,000 was donated to four charities through the safety awareness scheme.”
AGL Loy Yang has four generation units which produce a combined 2200MW of electricity per year which is enough power to supply more than two million average Australian homes per year.
The mine provides coal to Loy Yang A and Alinta’s Loy Yang B power station, which generate a combined 50 per cent of the state’s electricity requirements.
