Loy Yang A power station

Loy Yang A power station is 2,100 megawatt (MW) brown-coal fired power station in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Australia. The power station and the associated Loy Yang mine are owned by Loy Yang Power, which in turn is owned by AGL.

Power station
The power station has a nominal output of 2210 megawatts of electricity which Loy Yang Power states supplies "the equivalent of one third of the State's electricity needs". The power station comprises four generating units - three 560 megawatt units and one 535 megawatt unit. The power station burns brown coal from the adjacent Loy Yang mine.

The first two generating units were commissioned in 1984 and the second two in 1987. The power station, which is the largest brown coal fired power station in Australia, was assessed in 2003 as having an average annual "sent out thermal efficiency" of approximately 31% (HHV).

At the time of taking over the company AGL's Managing Director and CEO, Michael Fraser stated that the Loy Yang A power station "provides 30 per cent of Victoria’s energy needs and is one of the lowest cost generators in the National Electricity Market."

In a 2009 brochure, Loy Yang Power stated that the power station:


 * supplies "supplying approximately one third" of Victoria's electricity;
 * Loy Yang Power’s capacity is "the equivalent of more than 8% of total generation for Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory."
 * construction of the power station began in 1977 while the initial mining of overburden at the mine began in 1982;
 * Loy Yang Power consumes "approximately 60,000 tonnes of brown coal a day";
 * "the boiler consists of a labyrinth of tubes where water is heated and converted to high pressure steam by boiler furnace temperatures of up to 1,300oC."
 * each of the four boilers consumes approximately one million litres of water an hour;
 * the exhaust gases are vented via two 260 metre high chimneys;

Ownership
The company is wholly owned subsidiary of AGL.

Between April 2004 and June 29, 2012 the company was owned by the Great Energy Alliance Corporation, which comprised as its shareholders AGL (32.5%), Tokyo Electric Power Company (32.5%), MTAA Super (11.9%), Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund (14%), Motor Trades Association of Australia (MTAA) Superannuation Fund (12.8%), Westscheme (5.7%) and Statewide Super (2.5%). In June 2012 AGL bought the 67.46 % of shares and loan notes that it did not already own for $448 million.

Loy Yang Power was first created as a corporatised publicly owned generation company in February 1995 as the first step in the Jeff Kennett era privatisation of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria. Loy Yang Power was privatised in May 1997.

Pollution
The power station is located near Traralgon and, according to the company, "emitted 19,677,128 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2-e) in 2010 making LYP one of the largest single point source emitters of greenhouse gas in Australia.

Handout from carbon tax package
AGL's subsidiary received $240,116,761.67 of the $1 billion cash payments given out in 2011/12 to the operators of the most polluting coal-fired power stations. The cash was paid from the Energy Security Fund which was established as a part of the carbon tax legislation passed in 2011.

Protests
On September 3, 2007, activists from Real Action on Climate Change chained themselves to the coal conveyor belt from the Loy Yang mine which supplies coal to the brown-coal-fired Loy Yang A Power Station and Loy Yang B Power Station in Traralgon, Australia. Two people, and others hung several large banners from the plant. The action took place several days before an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney, and was intended to draw attention to Prime Minister John Howard's failure to limit Australian carbon emissions. Four people were arrested.

Waste disposal
On its website, Loy Yang Power states that adjacent to the power station is a 56 hectare ash pond containing 9.8 million cubic metres of ash. "The ash pond is used to collect the ash and dust removed from the boiler and draft plant of both Loy Yang Power and Loy Yang B. The ash and dust is mixed with water to form a slurry, which is pumped, to the ash pond. The ash and dust then settles from the slurry and the water is recycled back to the power station to be reused in the ash disposal process. Excess saline waste from all Latrobe Valley generators is pumped to the Loy Yang Ash Pond for disposal via an ocean outfall."

National Pollutant Inventory Data
The Australian's Government's National Pollutant Inventory lists emissions from the Loy Yang A power station for 2008/2009 as being:

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