Energy Brix Power Station, Victoria

Energy Brix Power Station is a brown coal powered power station located at Morwell, in Victoria, Australia. The power station is used to supply electricity for the retail market, as well as the production of briquettes in the adjacent Energy Brix briquette works.

Heat is reclaimed from the steam produced by electricity generation, and used to dry brown coal from up to 65% moisture down to 10% for use in coal briquettes manufactured on the site for both domestic consumption and export.

The Energy Brix power station has five steam turbines with a combined generation capacity of 170 MW. [ [http://www.hrl.com.au/www/45/1001127/displayarticle/1001188.html HRL Group of Companies: Electricity] ]

History

Work on the power station and briquette works commenced in 1949 by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV), when field works on the Morwell open cut mine commenced, and briquette production equipment was ordered from Germany. It was originally known as the Morwell Power Station.

Production at the plant started in 1956, with the briquettes produced used for domestic and industrial use, as well as town gas production for Melbourne at an adjacent gasworks by the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria. [cite book
last = Edwards
first = Ceciil
title = Brown Power. A jubilee history of the SECV
publisher = State Electricity Commission of Victoria
year = 1969
isbn = ]

Privatisation

The power station and briquette works were split from the SECV in November 1993, when from former Morwell Briquette and Power division was established as a Government Business Enterprise named Energy Brix Australia. At the time of the split, the plant employed 370 people, and exported 80,000 tonnes to briquettes to Germany, Slovenia, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Cyprus. [ [http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/pressrel.nsf/28333ac738ff5f0d4a25620d002c5e66/373ab858f0a5370f4a2561f10031d278!OpenDocument EXCITING FUTURE FOR ENERGY BRIX AUSTRALIA] ] Energy Brix Australia was sold on August 4 1996. [ [http://www.agencies.vic.gov.au/entityarchive/entityshow.asp?mode=search&ID=21&minID= Show Details for Energy Brix Australia Corporation] ] In February 2006 a licence was granted to the company for the retail sale of electricity from its plant. [ [http://www.esc.vic.gov.au/public/Energy/Regulation+and+Compliance/Licences/Energy+Brix+Australia+Licence+Application/ Essential Services Commission: Energy Brix Australia Licence Application] ]

Coal

The power station sources raw brown coal for power generation from the Yallourn and Loy Yang open cut mines, and its steaming coal for briquette production from the Morwell open cut mine. [ [http://www.ebac.com.au/brix/brown_coal.asp Energy Brix Australia: Brown Coal] ]

See also

* History of Morwell

External links

* [http://www.ebac.com.au/ Energy Brix Australia]

References