January 28, 2014
Stanwell Corporation is weighing up either repairs or replacement as the best option to repair “minor cracking” detected in the turbine of the mothballed Unit 4 at Tarong Power Station.
“It’s just one of the things that happens because the power station is now 30 years old,” a Stanwell spokesman said.
The original Tarong power station was built to last 30 years but with repairs and upgrades, Stanwell intends to keep it running for another 25 years.
The spokesman also confirmed that cracks had been detected in the Unit 1 and Unit 3 turbines.
This had led to the replacement of rotors in these units recently.
“Both rotors were 30 years old and the cracks were identified in one of our regular scheduled inspections where we identify faults before they become problems,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman said Stanwell was “doing the number crunching now” to ascertain what was the best way forward for the Unit 4 turbine – either repairs or replacement.
The fact that Stanwell is discussing repairing the mothballed unit should be good news for local business confidence.
The announcement that Units 2 and 4 at Tarong were being put into cold storage sent shockwaves through local industry in October 2012.
At the time it was suggested the units could remain shut down for two years or until the electricity market improved.
The Stanwell spokesman confirmed the market had improved slightly recently but no decision had been made to restart the units.
However, the market was always “kept under review” and it would be looked at again later this year.
“No decision has yet been made to return the units to service. This will depend on market conditions which remain challenging, however, there has been a slight improvement in the wholesale energy market over the past few months,” he said.
“The recent hot spell saw Queensland demand peak at just over 8300MW which is very encouraging.”
However this was still down on the 9000MW demand from a few years ago and there was also still a lot of “spare capacity” available, with Queensland generators capable of producing about 11,000MW a day.
The spokesman said Stanwell was balancing hydro-electric, coal and gas generation and adjusting its production to achieve the best value-for-money mix at any particular time.
“No decision has been made to take our gas power station off-line. However, as an energy company we’re always looking at the best options to maximise revenue for the business using our available energy resources,” he said.
[UPDATED January 29 with additional information]
