Loy Yang Power Station

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Table of Contents

Design Project Management
Construction: Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Performance and Operation
Occupational Health and Safety
Maintenance
References

Design Project Management

Loy Yang Power Station power station depends on the combustion of brown coal to produce electricity, since substitute fuels are unavailable. This implies that the power plant had to come up with technological advances that could minimize the greenhouse gas emissions and work on longer term developments. To ensure high standards of environmental performance, the owners of the power station implemented fully integrated environmental management practises.

The power station satisfactorily met the dust emissions requirements set by the Environment Protection Authority. The common gases emitted from the combustion of brown coal are sulphur dioxide (SO₂), carbon monoxide (CO) and oxides of nitrogen (NO_x). The power station also satisfactorily met the limits set by EPA, regarding the emission of these gases (Elkington 2010, p 1).

Construction: Quality Assurance/Quality Control

The main strategies implemented to ensure minimal emissions from the combustion of brown coal are the reduction of emissions and storage of emissions. Loy Yong Power puts a lot of emphasis on improving the efficiency of the power plant. In doing so, the plant is able to improve the environment as well. The improvements have shown improvements as they have resulted in a decrease of greenhouse gases by over 7%, in the period between the year 2002 and 2006. CCS demands a variety of new technologies. It also requires a different legislative framework, other than the one used to regulate extraction.

The implications of extensive use of CCS technologies includes: jurisdictional issues, leakage issues due to CO2 containment demanding regular monitoring, extensive planning, transport and storage access as well as the risk on the environment on the long term (Wu, Li, Hayashi, Chiba, & Li 2005, p 1224).

The main focus of the Loy Yang Power station is in capture and storage of the emissions. The main challenges to this strategy include: problems related to long-term concealing of carbon dioxide in underground voids, operating costs of the carbon Capture and Sequestration technologies, reduced conversion of energy and the increased expenses due to transportation and technology requirements.

The plant ensures controlled usage of water through monitoring programs. These programs also assist in reducing the effect of the water discharged to the environment from the power station. The positive results are attained by setting targets for all operations including the rate of discharge to the Traralgon Creek and the loadings for salt discharge (Wu, Li, Hayashi, Chiba, & Li 2005, p 1225).

Performance and Operation

These have been made possible through the integration of environmental and quality management systems. The initiatives include: the position held by IPM Loy Yang B as the EPA accredited licensee for the power station, integration of the environment, quality and safety management systems as per the requirement of !SO with regard to environmental management system, sponsorship through financing of the Traralgon Railway Reservoir Conservation Reserve, support of the Neighbourhood Improvement Plan (NEIP) in Traralgon Creek and the funding of rehabilitation projects in regions adjacent to the power station (Li 2004, p 43).

Occupational Health and Safety

Water is a key resource in the Loy Yang B Power Station, and therefore its use and discharge to the environment is important to the organization. The power plant has two water categories, low quality water, from the Latrobe River, and high quality water from Moondarra Reservoir. The former is used while untreated, for cooling and washing purposes, while the latter is treated before usage as feed water to the demineralisation plant.

Evaporative cooling in the plant is made possible using the low quality water, in order to maintain the total dissolved solids levels. The high quality water is in turn used in the boilers for electricity generation. The maintenance operations in relation to water usage involve sealing leakages to reduce steam loss (Li 2004, p 57).

The quality of water discharged is monitored by sampling and analyzing it, to make sure that the waste water discharged is in compliance with the licence requirements of EPA. The volume of water discharged is also monitored. The waste water discharged initially had high concentration of total dissolved substances due to evaporation process in the cooling towers. High salt discharges to the Traralgon Creek had to be controlled in order to meet the EPA limits. This was made possible by reducing the number of cooling cycles to a maximum of six (Li 2004, p 61).

Maintenance

The unforeseen consequences of CCS should be undertaken by the state, and considered in the legislation, instead of being imposed into commercial development expenses. The venture could also be undertaken privately, if commercial insurance was available at an affordable cost. Due to the extensive implementation of CSS, there has been a decrease in carbon dioxide levels of emission, higher capital expenditure, decreased energy supply, decreased business proceeds and higher costs to the clients.

These effects are observed to be against the foreseen increase in demand for electricity. As a result, the Loy Yang Power Plant needs to consider the economic implications for its customers by encouraging new developments and handling the energy loss using its assets (Elkington 2010, p 2).

References

Elkington, R., 2010. Strategic Policy Framework for Near Zero Emissions from Latrobe Valley Brown Coal. Web.

Li, C. 2004. Advances in the Science of Victorian Brown Coal. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.

Wu, H., Li, X., Hayashi, J., Chiba, T., & Li, C., 2005. Effects of volatilechar interactions on the reactivity of chars from NaCl-loaded Loy Yang brown coal. 81(10), pp. 1221-1228.

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