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Location
Wallerawang Power Station is in a picturesque valley 15 km west of Lithgow and about 160 km from Sydney. Nearby are Lake Wallace and Lake Lyell, which were built to supply cooling water for the power station. The lakes also offer some exceptional recreation activities. At Lake Wallace there is trout fishing and sailing. Birdlife is abundant, in particular the black swans and white-faced herons. Lake Lyell is popular with locals and tourists although due to prolonged drought, it has been closed by Lithgow Council to speedboating since July 2006. On shore fishing, camping and paddle boating are still permitted. The lake was also closed in 2004 because of drought.
Wallerawang Power Station, which began operation in 1957, has played an important part in the development of the western coalfields of New South Wales and the provision of power for the western rail electrification. In March 2007, a special plaque was unveiled and other celebrations were held to commemorate its 50 years of operation.
Turbo-Generators
The power station has a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts provided by two generating units of 500 megawatts capacity. Wallerawang produces electricity using pulverised coal-fired boilers and steam-driven turbo-generators. The turbo-generators are tandem compound reheat with single-flow high pressure, double-flow intermediate pressure and two double-flow low pressure exhaust cylinders. Operating speed is 3,000 rpm. Each turbo-generator is 48 metres long and weighs 1,300 tonnes.
Boilers
The boilers are dual-furnace tangentially fired, forced circulation with reheat. Boiler steam pressure is 15,860 kPa, steam temperature is 538 degrees Celsius, and steam flow rate is 441 kilograms/second.
Cooling Water
Being an inland power station and lacking the abundant salt water available for cooling at coastal power stations, Wallerawang uses a system of cooling towers with makeup water supplied from the adjacent lake systems. The parabolic concrete cooling tower for unit 8 is 115 metres high and uses natural draught circulation by drawing cold air in at the base. Hot water is cooled mainly by evaporation.
Two dams on the Coxs River, which runs through the power station area, supply water needed for cooling. Lake Wallace and Thompson's Creek dam (which mainly supplies Mount Piper Power Station 10 kilometres away) can be topped up in dry periods by water pumped from Lake Lyell and from water sourced from mine dewatering projects.
Transmission
Wallerawang's electrical output is linked into TransGrid's extensive interconnected high-voltage transmission system through a switchyard. Here the electricity is stepped up in voltage and fed into 330 kV transmission lines running to the Sydney metropolitan region, Wellington in the Central West, and interconnecting with Mount Piper Power Station.
Coal Supply
Over 75% of the power station's coal requirement is provided by the nearby Angus Place colliery. The coal is transported by a private coal haul road. Additional stocks are supplied by local privately owned mines. The coal is taken by conveyor to the power station pulverising mills, where it is crushed to a fine powder before being burnt in the furnace. Up to 2.2 million tonnes of coal are consumed each year.
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