Fast Facts on Hazelwood Power Station
Hazelwood Power Station
The Hazelwood power station, located near Morwell in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria, is Australia’s most polluting power station, pumping and average 17 million tons of greenhouse gases every year, equal to the total caused by all 1.4 million households in the state capital Melbourne.
Hazelwood power station has a 1600MW capacity, generated by eight 200 MW turbines and supplies up to 25 per cent of the state's base load electricity. Hazelwood consumes 1.31 megalitres of water per megawatt hour.
Hazelwood is also the most greenhouse intensive power station in Australia, which means that it produces the most greenhouse pollution for every unit of energy sent into the power grid.
The power station and mine are majority owned by the UK-based company International Power (which also owns Loy Yang B power station), Hazelwood was scheduled to be decommissioned by 2009 due to its excessive carbon dioxide emissions, however the State Government in 2005 extended its life until 2031.
Brief history
Hazelwood Power Corporation Pty Ltd was formed in 1995 as a Victorian state-owned business. The corporation ran a brown coal mine and the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. When the government owned Hazelwood it planned to shut the power station in 2005. Instead, then Premier, Jeff Kennett sold Hazelwood power station to International Power, a UK-based company.
In August 1996 the Victorian Government sold the Hazelwood Power Corporation to the UK based company International Power, who renamed it Hazelwood Power. The new owners of the business were National Power from the UK (72%). PacifiCorp from the USA (19.9%), and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (8.1%). In January 2003 the consortium changed its name to International Power Hazelwood (IPRH), which today produces up to 25% of Victoria's power.
Hazelwood Energy Retailer.
International Power Australia owns ‘Simply Energy’ TM, which is the retailer for electricity generated by Hazelwood (IPRH) power station onto the Victorian and South Australian grid. International Power Australia and Simply Energy entered into the electricity sector in 1996 and have grown to become the country’s largest private generator of electricity. Simply Energy as one of Australia’s biggest energy suppliers has almost 400,000 electricity and gas accounts. Simply Energy has its corporate headquarters in Melbourne.
Jobs at International Power Hazelwood
International Power Hazelwood employs 520 people, according to the company’s statistics. (www.ippic.com). There are 209 people employed in the mine, 242 in the power station and the remaining 69 are employed in management, sales,administration, information technology and purchasing.
Victorian brown coal (lignite)
Victorian brown coal is brown in colour (obviously) and its texture is like woody soil, to the point where there are still large chunks of petrified wood in brown coal seams. Brown coal has a high moisture content, it can contain up to 70 per cent water. This high moisture content makes it uneconomical for transport and sale outside of the domestic power market. Brown coals have no export value in the raw state.
How is brown coal used to generate electricity?
Brown coal is pulverized and then burned in large-scale boilers. The heat is used to boil water and the steam is used to drive turbines that generate electricity. Brown coal forms the basis for most electricity generation in Victoria. About 60 million tonnes are burned per year in this state.