Yallourn

The Yallourn brown coal mine and power station is located in the Latrobe Valley, 150 kms east of Melbourne. The station supplies approximately 22% of Victorias electricity needs and 8% nationally. Electricity generation at Yallourn dates back to 1921.

Power Station

The power station and mine was the first Victorian Government owned power business to be privatised.

In 2001, a $500 million investment to upgrade the power station and mine started. This investment includes:

• $50 million upgrade of the power station.
• $120 million for the diversion of the Morwell River (to enable access to new coal reserves).
• $20 million for the introduction of new mining technology.
• An estimated $250 million on progressive upgrades until at least 2032, including the development of the Maryvale Field.

Every hour, two thousand four hundred tonnes of brown coal are used to boil water into superheated steam to drive the four turbine generators. These turbines have a combined capacity of 1,480 megawatts of electricity and generate approximately 10,500 gigawatt hours per annum. This is enough to supply around two million homes.

A unique feature of the power station is its three vast concrete cooling towers, which were the first of their type constructed in Australia. Once the steam has passed through the turbine, water from the towers cools the steam so it can be pumped back to the boilers and reheated to steam to once again drive the turbines. In the cooling process, massive plumes of steam are released from the cooling towers.